Thomsonfly Ready for Tel Aviv Flights

Thomsonfly is set to become the first low-cost airline to fly to Israel with scheduled flights to begin in winter 2007. Fares are expected to start from £139.98 for a return to Tel Aviv from Luton and Manchester up to three times a week from November 1st.

Thomsonfly commercial director guy Stephenson said: “Our decision to launch into Tel Aviv will satisfy the huge demand for direct flights to this exciting Israeli city. The Israeli economy is strong and visitor numbers from the UK are up this year, which is a positive backdrop to the launch of new services.”
All passengers booking Thomsonfly flights to Tel Aviv will also be entitled to a special offer in conjunction with Budget Car Rental, enabling them to one days free car hire in Israel. The offer runs until April 2008.

Thomson holidays and Thomsonfly claim to attract around two million visitors to their websites each week and are therefore in a unique position to stimulate tourism from the UK to Israel. Stephenson added: “Tel Aviv has a growing reputation as a stylish and lively choice for city breaks, but also as an important destination for cultural exchanges between schools and religious groups, religious and history-based leisure breaks, visiting friends and relatives and as a place for doing business.”

Tel Aviv is ideally placed to attract a number of tourists, with Jerusalem less than an hour’s drive away and the Dead Sea about an hour and a half’s drive, it offers an excellent starting point for those wishing to discover Israel. Israeli tourist board director, Uzi gafni said: “The new Luton and Manchester routes into Tel Aviv give British travellers even greater access to what is arguably one of the most vivacious and cosmopolitan cities in the world. We have seen a 3% increase in UK visitors in the first quarter of this year over last year and we are delighted that Thomsonfly’s arrival onto Tel Aviv will help cater for this demand.”

Thomsonfly was founded at Luton in 1962 in recognition of the changing needs of travellers and holiday makers in the UK and throughout Europe, offering low fares and a variety of destinations. Thomsonfly is part of TUI AG, the largest tourism and travel services group in the world, which is based in Hanover, Germany. This also includes TUI UK which has brands including Thomson and Thomson Travel Shops. The combined fleet of all TUI airlines numbers over 100 aircraft.
TUI is set to complete its merger with First Chioce holidays to create the worlds biggest travel company TUI Travel.