Ashwani Lohani will visit Israel early next month as a guest of Tourism Minister Yariv Levin.
Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani will visit Israel early next month and formally announce the inauguration of Israel - India flights, "Yediot Ahronot" reports. Lohani and a senior delegation of Air India executives will be the guests of Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin.
Currently El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) operates the only direct flight between the two countries on its Tel Aviv - Mumbai route. It remains unclear whether Air India will fly to Tel Aviv from Mumbai or New Delhi.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, 45,000 Indian tourists came to Israel last year, up 13% from 2015 and it is hoped that the Air India flights will significantly increase this number. In 2016, 61,251 passengers flew on the direct flights of El Al between Israel and India. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, mainly youngsters, flew to and from India via stopover destinations such as Amman, Cairo, Istanbul and Kiev.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 23, 2017
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