Turkey named as top Israeli destination in July, kind of
Some 172,000 Israelis flew to Turkey last month, though many flew on elsewhere; Greece comes close second and US third
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Turkey was the top flight destination from Israel during the month of July, showing a jump of nearly a third in the number of passengers arriving in its airports compared to the year before, according to figures released Monday by the Israel Airports Authority.
Greece was the second most visited place followed by destinations in the US, the Ynetnews website reported.
In total, some 172,507 Israelis and tourists flew to Turkey during July, although many then took connecting flights on to other destinations in Europe, Far East, and America.
The number was 30% higher than the figures for July 2014, when Israel was embroiled in a 50-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Last month 169,248 people flew to Greece, a 29.7% increase on the same period from the year before, and 136,373 traveled to the US, an increase of less than 10%.
German destinations were in fourth place with 135,000 passengers, a 23% increase over 2014, followed by Italy with 123,176 flyers and a 20% increase over July 2014.
However, the single most used airport by Israelis was Charles De Gaulle in Paris with 81,737 arrivals from Israel, followed by Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, with 66,946 passengers — a 45.5% increase over July 2014. Antalya Airport received 61,713 passengers, a 4 percent increase over last year figures for July.
In the US, the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York received 61,534 passengers — a four-percent decrease over the same period last year as traffic moved instead to Newark Liberty International Airport, which received an increase in traffic from Israel of some 15.5%.
In total, 1,768,3000 passengers passed though Ben-Gurion International Airport in July, exceeding all IAA expectations and showing a 20% increase over the previous year, the report said.
National carrier El Al was the primary service provider, flying 540,000 passengers for a 30% share of the market, followed by Israeli carrier Arkia, which took 85,762 people, and then Turkish Airlines that hauled 74,579 passengers, a 47% jump over last year.
Since the beginning of the year, 8,514,861 passengers passed through Ben-Gurion — up four percent over the same period in 2014.
