Turkish Airlines serves 1M passengers in Israel in 2017

By Turgut Alp Boyraz

TEL AVIV (AA) - Turkish Airlines carried more than a million passengers to Israel in 2017, according to Israel Airport Authority Wednesday.

According to the report, the total number of passengers of Turkey's flag-carrier in Israel rose by 9.5 percent year-on-year in 2017.

Turkish Airlines became the first foreign airline company to surpass the 1 million mark in Israel except for the country's own national carrier.

Flights between Istanbul and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport operate nine times a day.

Meanwhile, Israel Airport Authority said Turkey topped the list of countries with 133,714 passengers, constituting 9.56 percent of the country's total international passenger traffic.

"The destination with the highest volume of activity was Istanbul Ataturk Airport with a total of 82,396 passengers to and from, an increase of 29.25 percent compared to the previous December," it added.