The air route to Thailand is being opened to competition under an agreement signed by Israel and Thailand. The open skies agreement allows other airlines to operate regular flights between the two countries.
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) is currently the only airline operating direct flights from Israel to Thailand. The alternatives are flights with stopovers in various countries.
The Ministry of Transport expects the agreement to substantially increase the number of passengers and lower ticket prices. Competition on the Tel Aviv-Bangkok route and flights to additional destinations in Thailand are expected.
Under the agreement, each country can operate up to 28 weekly flights with no restrictions on capacity or the type of airliner, compared with the eight weekly flights currently operated by El Al. The agreement also allows commercial cooperation agreements between airlines on both sides and code sharing agreements between Israeli and Thai carriers and carriers from third countries.
Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for Israeli travelers. According to Israel Airports Authority figures,16,000 Israelis flew to Thailand on direct El Al flights last October and 166,000 in January-October 2016.
These figures are slightly less than those of last year, but many Israelis fly to Thailand on connection flights via other destinations on airlines such as Aeroflot, Turkish Airlines, Royal Jordanian, etc.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 6, 2016
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