The operation in Gaza that started after the October 7 tragedy (2023) created several conflicts between Israel and other countries. This comes in a form of embargos, fines and more. For example, Turkish Airlines and Israel are in a conflict over that operation. As a result, the airline announced they won’t fly to/from Israel at least not before March 2025.
Initially, the airline stopped all its flights right after the October 7 tragedy. Later in November 2023 it announced its flights to/from Israel won’t resume before October 2024. Now, as of April 2024, they announced the same until March 2025.
Why Turkish Airlines has a conflict with Israel?
Turkish Airlines is the national airline of Turkey. Currently, Israel and Turkey are going through a conflict over the operation in Gaza.
Many Israelis use Turkey as a hub for connection flights to Europe and even to the Far East or America. Other smaller airlines in Turkey have followed suit. For example, Pegasus Airlines announced the following:
Our Israel flights have been suspended until further notice due to the current situation in Israel.
If you’re trying to look for flights from Israel to Istanbul, you would find no direct flights right now. To accomplish that route from A to B you would have to stop in Sofia (Bulgaria), Athens (Greece) or any other similar routes:
What can we expect to happen next?
As mentioned in a previous post, the Israeli economy is quite reselient and it can sustain incidents like these. Many Israelis at the moment (April 2024) won’t even choose to fly to Turkey over the tensions between Israel and Gaza.
For some specifically, it could be an annoying thing, however in general this is only a drop in the ocean that won’t have any significant impact over the Israeli economy or tourism in general.
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