Turkish Airways and Turkish low-cost service Pegasus have determined to forego their take-off and touchdown slots in Israel, thereby shedding a valuable useful resource acquired assiduously through the years. So far as Turkish Airways is anxious, the worth would be the lack of handy flight occasions, which can allow its rivals to consolidate their presence and maximize earnings on every day flights on routes to and from Israel.
The apply within the aviation trade is that an airline that continuously makes use of a slot that it has obtained can preserve it, but when it fails to take advantage of it, the slot is liable to be assigned to a different airline. The Turkish corporations had been purported to resolve final month whether or not to maintain their slots in Israel, however due to the safety uncertainty that also prevails within the area, they got extra time to resolve. Their choice to not preserve their slots will make it tough for them to return to working in Israel in a while.
Turkish Airways is 49% owned by a state funding fund, but it surely operates as a profit-making enterprise entity in each respect. However, as an organization topic to affect by the Turkish authorities, its choices should not solely financial, however are alos political.
Till the Swords of Iron struggle, Turkish Airways was one of many foremost airways working at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. In 2019, earlier than the Covid pandemic, it was ranked fourth for its exercise on the airport, with a market share of 4.87%. It maintained its standing in 2023, although it suspended operations at Ben Gurion for 3 months when the struggle broke out in October that yr. Pegasus was ranked twelfth at the moment.
In response to trade sources, the Tel Aviv – Istanbul route was considered one of Turkish Airways’ most worthwhile routes, because of excessive demand for connecting flights from Istanbul to locations in Europe, North America and Asia, whereas working prices had been low. Actually, flights to and from Israel should not extremely necessary for tourism in Turkey itself, the place the vacationer trade is rising with out vacationers from Israel, however they did considerably strengthen Turkish Airways’ community of worldwide flights.
The absence of Turkish Airways is keenly felt at Ben Gurion Airport. Till the outbreak of struggle, it usually operated greater than ten every day flights on the Tel Aviv – Istanbul route, with as many as sixteen flights every day in peak intervals, and in July-August 2023 greater than 5% of the passengers that handed by the airport flew with it. The non-return of the Turkish carriers will allow Israeli and overseas airways to take over their slots.
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on April 28, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
