El Al Israel Airlines announced Tuesday that flights between Ben-Gurion International Airport and Eilat would be discontinued beginning August 1. The route primarily carried tourists from overseas who had arrived at Ben-Gurion. Charter flights between Europe and Eilat will continue to operate.

"El Al has been operating local flights to Eilat for over 10 years, linking up with the company's international flights to Ben-Gurion Airport. According to our estimates about 8,000 tourists reached Eilat on El Al flights from Ben-Gurion Airport on these local flights in 2008,” said El Al's VP of commercial and aviation connections Eli Cohen. He added that following the continuing economic crisis and the fall in the number of tourists to Israel, and Eilat in particular, operating flights to the Red Sea resort would result in losses for the company.