Air India plans 3 weekly flights to Tel Aviv from May
Deal sealed in meeting between Air India CEO and Israeli tourism minister likely to reduce Tel Aviv-Delhi fares
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Air India is set to operate direct flights between Delhi and Tel Aviv as early as May, after Tourism Minister Yariv Levin met Sunday with the CEO of the Indian airline, Ashwani Lohani, to seal the deal.
Air India has asked the Israel Airports Authority to allow it to run three weekly flights between the two countries.
India is a popular destination for Israelis, particularly young people just discharged from army service.
But increasing numbers of Indians have been visiting the Holy Land, too.
Out of 158,000 passengers traveling between the two countries last year, some 45,000 were Indians coming into Tel Aviv.
Levin told Army Radio on Monday that he hoped the competition would bring prices down.
Just over a quarter of Israelis flying to India use El Al, the national Israeli carrier, which already flies to Indian destinations, the majority preferring cheaper indirect routes via airports in cities such as Moscow and Istanbul.
The deal forms part of a broader Tourism Ministry policy to attract a growing Asian middle class that is keen to explore the world.
In June, visits to Israel by Chinese tourists increased 93 percent over June 2015, bolstered by three new nonstop flights each week from Beijing to Tel Aviv on China’s Hainan Airlines.
The past five months alone have seen an average 25% rise in Chinese tourism to Israel, Levin said, with more than 100,000 Chinese expected to visit Israel this year.
In a bid to attract more Indian visitors, the Tourism Ministry last year opened its first tourism office, in Mumbai, and launched a $1.5 million PR campaign in India with television ads, print media endorsements and shout-outs on social media, as well as a dedicated website for Indian travelers to Israel.
Last May, Hollywood star and Indian fashion icon Sonam Kapoor visited Israel as a guest for a photo shoot that yielded a Jerusalem-themed cover picture for the June-July issue of Harper’s Bazaar Bride, India.
In November 2015, just after opening the Mumbai tourism office, the Israeli government hosted four Indian celebrity chefs, who in exchange for guided tours of the country gave a series of workshops to local, Israeli hotel chefs on how to prepare Indian dishes.
The same month, a quartet of Chinese chefs came to Israel, and at workshops at the Tadmor Hotel in Herzliya and the Dan Gourmet Cooking School in Tel Aviv, they led lessons for Israeli chefs on Chinese spices, oils and the preparation of dishes like fried tofu.
JTA contributed to this report.
