Israel is granting access to to Air India, following the Indian national carrier’s decision to commence flights between the two countries beginning March 20, 2018.
According to Ms. Lydia Weitzman, spokesperson for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, “This one-time grant of EUR 750,000 will be given to Air India for its thrice-weekly, new flight operations on the New Delhi — Tel Aviv route from next month in recognition of the growing potential for incoming tourism to Israel.”
Bilateral relations between the two countries are undergoing drastic transformations, showing positive improvement in recent times, following an unprecedented and unheard of path, breaking official trips by the two heads of states of the two countries, Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi. Hasan Madah, Director for India in Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, commented that outbound Indian visitors to Israel grew at a healthy 31 percent in 2017, reaching 60,000. Similar growth stories characterized the previous year’s performance as well. Projected visitor growth estimates from India for the current year have been pegged at a whopping 100,000. Currently, the only direct flight between the 2 countries is operated by Israel’s El Al airline on the Mumbai-Tel Aviv sector, thrice weekly.
