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Only Turkish Planes Fly between Turkey and Israel

(Times of Israel) Raphael Ahren - Turkish Airlines has become the second-largest aviation company flying out of Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport, with 53 weekly flights from Tel Aviv to Istanbul. Pegasus Airlines and other Turkish charter companies together offer an additional 59 weekly flights, making a total of 112 Turkish flights. Until 2007, Israeli companies operated 30 weekly flights to and from Turkey. But then Turkish authorities refused to allow Israel security personnel "to perform the security checks on passengers boarding flights to Israel," according to Flightglobal.com. "It is not the first time that a country has been uncomfortable with the presence of armed Israeli security personnel in its airports. Russia and Denmark have taken a similar stance in the past, but eventually agreed to lift the restrictions." "On merit, we should ban Turkish flights to Israel tomorrow," a senior Israeli official said. "But currently we don't want to open another front with the Turks," although "Israel has become a goldmine for Turkish companies." As long as Erdogan is in power, Israeli-Turkish relations will not be as cordial as they were under his predecessors, Israeli officials assess. "He really hates us - the honeymoon is over," a senior diplomatic official said.
2013-11-01 00:00:00
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