A senior official at the Irish low-cost giant Ryanair told Reuters last week that the company would resume operating a full flight schedule to Israel in the summer, after not landing at Ben Gurion Airport since February 2024. Following the interview, it was still not possible to book tickets on routes to Israel, but by the end of the week, as part of a sales campaign for various destinations in Europe, the option to book tickets at lower prices than usual on routes to Israel opened on Ryanair's booking website, and it was possible to find out for the first time where the company would fly and what the price range would be.
Let's start with the list of destinations. Ryanair will operate routes from Ben Gurion Airport to Paphos, Athens, Rome, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, Baden-Baden, Memmingen (Germany), Brussels, Lithuania, Malta, Krakow, Ponzen and Bucharest.
Some of the lines will start operating at the end of March and some in the first days of April. So how much will it cost? We found a one-way ticket to Paphos between April 1 and 6 for between €72 and €89, and a return ticket for €49. Prices do not include a trolley or suitcase. Adding a trolley costs between €18.50 and €20 per way, depending on the destination.
Here are some more ticket prices (1 euro equals 3.78 shekels):
Rome: Between March 31 and April 5 – a one-way ticket costs €71 and a return ticket costs €80.
Budapest: Between April 1 and April 5 – a one-way ticket costs €94 one-way and and a return ticket costs €73.
Vienna: Between March 30 and April 4 – a one-way ticket costs €51, and and a return ticket costs €72.
Athens: From April 1 to April 5 – a one-way ticket costs €84, and a return ticket costs €84.
Malta: We found a round-trip ticket on April 1st for €51, and a return ticket on April 8th for €59.
Berlin: A round-trip flight on April 2 costs €90, and a return flight is the same price.
The Israel Airports Authority previously said that Terminal 1, the terminal for domestic and low-cost flights, would open in early April, the date that was coincidentally - or not - chosen by Ryanair to resume flights. Since Israel is still in a state of war and, as past experience shows, an escalation in shooting at Israel could lead to changes in plans among airlines and the cancellation of scheduled routes and flights, this should be taken into account when booking tickets with foreign companies.
'A calculated risk'
"Many Israelis are hesitant before booking tickets on an airline that has not yet returned to Israel, such as Ryanair, and I can understand them," Yaniv Lenis, founder of the Secret Flight website, told Ynet. "We need to take into account that this is a calculated risk. On the one hand, there is an opportunity to purchase cheap flights for Passover and summer at prices that will most likely double and triple as we get closer to the flight dates, but on the other hand it is important to take into account that there is a risk that the flights will be canceled if the security situation does not allow the airline to return. Despite the justified criticism of the Irish, ultimately Ryanair's considerations are commercial. If they see an opportunity to fly stably and profitably in another market, they will do so. I expect the Ministry of Transportation and the Airports Authority to announce today the opening date of Terminal 1 in order to support the airlines operating from it and allow lower prices for consumers."
Meanwhile, the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air, which currently operates flights on the Tel Aviv-Larnaca route, will expand its operations in Israel starting Wednesday and operate routes to Abu Dhabi, Rome and Milan, London, Warsaw, Krakow and Budapest.
Most of the world's largest airlines have not yet resumed flying to Israel. The route to the U.S. is operated only by El Al, and Air France and British Airways have not yet resumed flights to Ben Gurion Airport. The Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa Airlines, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, has also extended the suspension of its flights to Israel until January 31, 2025, and it is unclear whether it will be extended again.
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The 2024 summary report recently published by the Airports Authority states that: "In the past year and throughout the war, about 20 international airlines continued to fly to Israel and offered the Israeli passenger a variety of about 50 destinations. The five most popular destinations were Greece with over 1.8 million passengers, the U.S. with about 1.4 million passengers, Cyprus with about 1 million passengers, the United Arab Emirates with about 890,000 passengers, and France with about 850,000 passengers. The airlines that led the majority of passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Airport in 2024 were El Al with about 6.5 million passengers, Israir with about 1.4 million passengers, Arkia with about 1 million passengers, as well as Fly Dubai and Blue Bird with about half a million passengers each."
In addition to Ben Gurion Airport, flights from Haifa to Cyprus and Athens recently have begun operating, and starting next month Israir will begin operating flights to Athens from Ramon Airport, making it possible to fly abroad from three different airports in Israel for the first time in many years.