By Itzhak Rabihiya
The Israel Airports Authority estimates traffic at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel's holiday season will be 2.4 million passengers, including 1.1 million Israelis.
Today is likely to be the busiest day at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel's holiday season. 108,000 passengers will pass through the airport terminals on 710 international flights, including over 9,000 passengers on 45 flights to Uman in Ukraine – Globes newspaper reports.
The Israeli Airports Authority estimates incoming and outgoing traffic at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel's holiday season at 2.4 million passengers, including 1.1 million Israelis spending the upcoming holidays overseas. This amounts to a quarter of the 4.6 million tourists who visited Israel during the entire past year.
The Ministry of Tourism's calculation compares the number of tourists to the preceding year, which was 3.9 million. The ministry says that the contribution to the Israeli economy of the tourists who visited over the past year is $6.4 billion.
While tens of thousands of Israeli will leave daily for foreign vacations in the holiday season, the Ministry of Tourism says that 24,000 tourists will arrive in Israel every day.
The leading destination for those leaving for foreign vacations in September 2019 is Turkey, followed by Greece, Italy, the US, and Russia. For many, Turkey is a place to catch a connection flight, but the number of vacationers remaining in Turkey in their vacations has recently grown.
Will the travel warnings published in recent days by the National Security Council Bureau of Counter-Terrorism change the picture? The warnings published included Turkey and a severe warning for Egypt. Nevertheless, the Airports Authority estimates that 150,000 passengers will go through the Israel-Taba border during the holidays, including 35,000 on Rosh Hashanah. These warnings also failed to impress the million passengers who have crossed the border this year, 30% more than in the preceding year.
