Ryanair airplane
Ryanair airplaneiStock

Ryanair has started selling tickets for flights to and from Tel Aviv, covering several destinations, as the airline signals plans to resume its route by late March, Times of Israel reported on Sunday.

Most airlines, including Ryanair, suspended flights to Israel following the war that erupted after the Hamas terror group attacked the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.

A Ryanair executive confirmed last week that the Irish low-cost carrier intends to operate a full flight schedule to Israel this summer, anticipating a return to normal travel conditions to and from Tel Aviv.

“We rely on EASA [European Union Aviation Safety Agency] guidance …, but our view is that we will be back,” Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair DAC, the largest of five subsidiary airlines operated by the Ryanair Group, told Reuters.

“We’ve got a full schedule I think for Tel Aviv …, so we will be back in there for the summer as I think most of the other airlines will be,” he added.

Many foreign airlines suspended their routes to Israel when the war broke out, and have since repeatedly canceled and resumed the flights.

Ryanair resumed its flights to Israel in February, but announced just one month later that it is again suspending all flights to and from Israel.

Ryanair stated at the time that the decision to suspend flights was the result of the airline being “forced by Ben Gurion International Airport to operate at the more expensive Terminal 3, which resulted in significantly higher costs and would have resulted in much higher airfares for Ryanair passengers traveling to and from Tel Aviv.”

Its announcement about the resumption of flights to Israel followed a decision by its rival low-cost carrier, Hungarian Wizz Air, to expand its flight offerings to Tel Aviv starting January 15.

Wizz Air, which resumed flights to Ben Gurion Airport in December after a two-month suspension, initially relaunched its Tel Aviv-Larnaca route and is now adding connections to 10 additional destinations, according to the report.

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines has similarly resumed operations, offering competitive return fares of under $100 for flights between Tel Aviv and Athens, as well as Tel Aviv and Larnaca.

Several foreign airlines have resumed flights to Israel since the November 27 ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon came into effect. Air France, British Airways and the Lufthansa group are expected to restart service next month.

However, the three major US legacy carriers are still not flying to and from Israel.