To meet the rising demand of American tourists to Israel, Continental Airlines has announced that, as of next April, it will add a second daily non-stop flight to Israel from Newark Airport near New York. Travel sources in New York are complaining that El Al, Israel's national carrier, is not providing sufficient flights to fill the need - and that tourism to Israel, and thus its economy in general, is suffering.
Arutz-7 queried the Tourism Ministry on this issue, and spokeswoman Nitzan Ilan responded with this statement: "The Tourism Ministry has made great efforts to have all the airlines increase the number of seats on flights arriving from the U.S. Among others, the Ministry has also turned to El Al. El Al used its commercial considerations in this matter, and the final decision remains in its hands."
Arutz-7 also turned to El Al, which stated that El Al currently runs 20 weekly flights from New York to Tel Aviv, and "we are planning to add another one in January."
Tourism Minister Benny Elon said this week that the tourist industry "is the only branch of the economy that is encouraging growth by adding places of work and bringing foreign currency into Israel in these difficult times. For every 100,000 tourists coming to visit Israel, the country gains $9 million and 4,500 permanent places of employment."
Arutz-7 queried the Tourism Ministry on this issue, and spokeswoman Nitzan Ilan responded with this statement: "The Tourism Ministry has made great efforts to have all the airlines increase the number of seats on flights arriving from the U.S. Among others, the Ministry has also turned to El Al. El Al used its commercial considerations in this matter, and the final decision remains in its hands."
Arutz-7 also turned to El Al, which stated that El Al currently runs 20 weekly flights from New York to Tel Aviv, and "we are planning to add another one in January."
Tourism Minister Benny Elon said this week that the tourist industry "is the only branch of the economy that is encouraging growth by adding places of work and bringing foreign currency into Israel in these difficult times. For every 100,000 tourists coming to visit Israel, the country gains $9 million and 4,500 permanent places of employment."