Korean Air to renew passenger flights to Israel

The announcement came after the conclusion of talks held in Seoul between Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Mr. Jonghee Lee, President of Korean Air
 
Korean Air which ranks in the top ten of world airlines in terms of passengers carried announced last week it would renew passenger non stop flights to Israel.
 
The announcement came after the conclusion of talks held in Seoul between Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Mr. Jonghee Lee, President of Korean Air.
 
The company which operates international passenger and related cargo services to 130 cities in 45 countries and domestic services to 20 destinations announced the renewal of flights after ten years during which no direct flights operated from South Korea to Israel.
 
Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich flew to South Korea with the general director of his office, Shaul Zemach. It's a trip the two were hoping to encourage millions of potential visitors to Israel from East Asia, a region expected to produce a quarter of the world's international travelers by 2020.
 
The agenda for Aharonovich and Zemach's trip included meetings with tourism industry officials including the Minister of Culture and Tourism Kim Jong Min as well as discussions about setting up a new office in the region to represent Israel as a tourism destination.
 
Israel is expected to draw between 90,000 and 100,000 visitors from East Asia this year, more than half of them South Korean Christians and one-third from China, India and Japan.
 
Today only El Al operates direct flights to Far Eastern destinations, namely Thailand, India, Hong Kong and Beijing. Korean Air will inaugurate the new three weekly flights service in April 2008, operating Boeing 777 planes.