Turkish Airlines extended the cancellation of its flights to Israel (Reuters)
The Israeli economic newspaper Globes reported that Turkish Airlines canceled its website for pre-booking its flights to Israel until March 2025.
Following the outbreak of Israel's war on Gaza, the company announced the suspension of its flights until October 2024, which means that the company may have extended the suspension for an additional 5 months.
Before the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, Turkish Airlines was operating more than 10 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Istanbul.
Significant impact
The newspaper pointed out a significant impact of the cancellation of Turkish Airlines flights to Israel on flight patterns to and from Ben Gurion Airport, as Turkish Airlines operates flights to 340 destinations across 4 continents
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and Istanbul was a popular stopover for Israeli travelers looking for economical prices for flights. all over the world.
According to data from the Israeli Airports Authority, in the summer of 2023, Turkish Airlines was one of the airlines operating the largest number of flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport, according to the newspaper.
Globes indicated that in July and August 2023, more than 5% of passengers on flights arriving and departing from Tel Aviv traveled via Turkish Airlines, ranking fourth in the number of passengers transported to and from Ben Gurion Airport.
Israelis cannot book via Turkish Airlines until October 25, 2025 (Reuters)
Turkish exports
This comes a day after the Israeli economic newspaper Globes quoted an informed source - which it did not name - as saying that exports from Turkey to Israel were either delayed or not approved during the past five days.
According to the newspaper, agencies working with Israeli importers said that the source of the delay is the Turkish government, and it is unclear how long the current situation will continue.
Globes reported that since last Friday it has not been possible to pay export duties for shipments from Turkey to Israel, as the dedicated website shows a technical error, with no option to proceed with the process.
According to the newspaper, the shipping lines operating on the line between Turkey and Israel - which remained active despite the war - are now working to delay the departure of the ships in the hope that the situation can still be resolved and they will be able to leave.
Globes reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has already been informed of the situation and is dealing with it.
Source: Al Jazeera + Israeli press