Scandinavian Airlines returning to Israel in October

The Scandinavian carrier had stopped flying to Israel in 2016.

By JNS

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will resume service to Israel this fall, restarting service from Copenhagen to Tel Aviv for the first time in more than nine years, the national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden announced on Thursday.

The move highlights the resurgence of the Israeli aviation sector and the reemergence of Ben-Gurion International Airport as a travel hub at a time when an ever-increasing number of foreign carriers have resumed flights to Israel.

SAS will offer thrice weekly flights to Tel Aviv from the Danish capital starting on Oct. 26.

“This is a bold step and shrewd business decision which proves once more that economic reasoning trumps political reasoning when it comes to the tourism industry,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Jerusalem’s Ziontours, told JNS on Friday. “SAS will find this to be a very profitable route.”

The Scandinavian carrier had stopped flying to Israel in 2016.

Other international carriers planning to resume service to Israel include Delta Air Lines, set to restart flights next month.

Air Canada, Italy’s ITA Airways, British Airways and Irish budget carrier Ryanair are scheduled to resume operations in October.

Some 92,000 passengers traveled through Ben-Gurion International Airport on Thursday, the highest single-day figure since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Israel Airports Authority.