Ben Gurion Airport passengers dropped sharply to 1.9M in July-August

This is 16% below the projected traffic of 2.25 million. Despite the smaller number of passengers the number of incoming flights increased
 
The Israel Airports Authority announced last week that passenger traffic moving through Ben-Gurion Airport this summer stood at 1.94 million people – 16% below the projected traffic of 2.25 million.
 
The authority noted that the passangers figure for war period July-August 2006, was 5.5% lower than the corresponding period in 2005, when nearly 2.5 million passengers passed through Ben-Gurion airport.
 
The authority noted, however, that despite the smaller number of passengers the number of incoming flights increased. The number of flights to and from Israel rose by 8.2% in July and 5.4% in August.
 
Overall passenger traffic is still up 5.8% for the year ( January-August) , with flight traffic up 9.9% compared to the corresponding period last year.
 
Israeli airlines carried half of the passengers at Ben Gurion Airport in July-August, 10% fewer than in the corresponding months of last year.
 
Among the 20 major airlines servicing Ben Gurion airport, Air France enjoyed the greatest growth in operations, at 72.6%,Austrian Airlines 39.5% and the Turkish charter company Fly Air 67.5%.
 
The heaviest passenger traffic during the period was on the Israel-US routes.