Turkish Airlines still saving Tel Aviv flight slots

Turkish Airlines suspended operations with Israel with the outbreak of war in October 2023. However, the airline decided to keep its flight locations at Ben Gurion Airport. In the aviation industry, take-off and landing slots at airports are an expensive and valuable resource and one of the most important assets of airlines. Retaining the slots will allow Turkish Airlines the right to operate at Ben Gurion Airport.

But if the airline doesn’t use the slots this summer, it will be at risk of losing them.

The holding of slots by foreign airlines is not unusual. Many airlines that suspended operations in Israel chose to save their spots, but Turkish Airlines’ predicament is a little different. As a government company, its decisions are influenced by the considerations of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Therefore, Turkish Airlines will likely not use its slots for political reasons. Since the beginning of the war, as part of a policy of supporting Hamas, the airline’s operations at Ben Gurion Airport have been suspended, and there is no real prospect of their resumption.

In 2023, Turkish Airlines was the fourth largest airline at Ben Gurion Airport

The absence of Turkish Airlines is deeply felt at Ben Gurion Airport. According to data from the Israel Airports Authority, in the summer of 2023, the airline was one of the largest airlines in Israel. Before October 7, 2023, Turkish Airlines operated more than 10 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Istanbul.

From July to August 2023, more than 5% of passengers on flights in and out of Ben Gurion Airport used Turkish Airlines, making it the fourth largest airline operating flights to Tel Aviv.

Aviation industry sources believe that Turkish Airlines will be asked in March to decide whether it plans to resume operations in Israel, and if so, to what extent? It is estimated that even if it resumes flights to Tel Aviv, the number of flights will be reduced to a third of its previous flights, a figure far from the volume of operations before the war. Keeping its flight schedules so far shows that Turkish Airlines is still keeping its options open, but whether it will use these slots remains unclear.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on January 13, 2025.

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