Tourist agency Flying Carpet Ltd. has organized the first full charter plane to depart from Ben Gurion Airport to Antalya in Turkey today, the first since the flotilla incident in late May. 99% of the passengers were Israeli Arabs, along with one Jewish family from Netanya.
Boaz Hadad, the father of the family of four, told "Globes", "We don’t care about politics. It seems to us that now it is actually safer to travel to Turkey." He added that his family was unconcerned by the absence of other Jews on the plane.
Although several flights left Ben Gurion Airport for Turkey last week, they carried only around ten passengers each.
In response to the ongoing tensions between Israel and Turkey, Flying Carpet CEO Eyal Kashdan said, "We're businessmen, and we don’t deal with politics. The Turks are waiting for the return of Israeli tourists, and so long as there is demand, we'll sell this destination to our customers."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 2, 2010
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