Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz gave last week approval, for Arkia Airlines ltd. to institute regular direct flights from Ben-Gurion International Airport to Oslo and Helsinki.
The routes are currently served only by charter flights. El Al has not flown them for some time. Katz said that the move to allow direct flights were made possible by recent aviation agreements with Norway and Finland which allow each country to assign the route to one of its country's carriers.
Arkia was the only Israeli airline that expressed interest in the routes.
Katz noted that, "Operating scheduled flights between Israel and Finland and Norway is part of the implementation of the liberalization process in the aviation sector, which has led to a significant rise in the number of flights and passengers to and from Israel."
