Post-Holiday Flight Prices Plunge as Airline Capacity Expands in Israel
Flight prices from Ben Gurion Airport drop significantly after the Tishrei holidays, with reductions of over 70% to destinations like Rome and Budapest alongside increased airline capacity.
If you are planning to fly for a short or long vacation around the world and have no specific date preferences, it is likely worth waiting until next month. The holiday season is traditionally characterized by higher prices, but a recent check by lastminute.co.il reveals an unusually sharp gap: for some destinations, prices drop by more than half with the conclusion of the Tishrei holidays, while flight availability and popular destinations sought by Israelis also shift.
The survey compared average flight prices to 15 destinations during the holidays (through September and until October 4) against post-holiday travel (October 5–31). As expected, prices declined across all tested destinations, with the sharpest drop recorded in Rome, where the average round-trip ticket price fell by 74%, from $620 to $160. Budapest saw a 71% decrease (from $565 to $164), Athens 64% (from $385 to $137), Catania in Sicily 62% (from $670 to $256), and Tbilisi 60% (from $615 to $247). Significant reductions were also recorded for long-haul destinations: travelers to Tokyo can save an average of $969, Seoul $707, and Hanoi $605.
New York Prices and Returning Carriers
New York presents a particularly interesting case study. For a period, only El Al and Arkia operated flights to the United States, but last week two American carriers, Delta and United, returned to Israel, and Israir is also launching its inaugural New York flights this week. For now, at least, there has been no significant price shift, as high demand appears to overcome the increased supply. However, those choosing to fly immediately after the holidays can lower the average price by approximately 29%—from $1,811 to $1,283. Waiting until January can uncover tickets for under $1,000, according to travel company Gulliver.
Expanding Flight Options and Frequencies
These significant price gaps follow the conclusion of one of the busiest periods of the year at Ben Gurion International Airport, though chaos that previously disrupted operations did not dampen overall statistics. According to the Israel Airports Authority, approximately 2.7 million passengers passed through Ben Gurion in August, with an additional 2.5 million anticipated for September.
Alongside high demand, the Israeli aviation market enters October with a substantial increase in capacity on several routes. Wizz Air announced the return of five routes from Ben Gurion and increased frequencies on 11 existing ones. Notably, weekly flights to Budapest increased from 14 to 21, Rome from 12 to 14, and Athens from 5 to 7. The Catania route was also reinstated with four weekly flights. Beyond Wizz Air, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is slated to resume operations in Israel starting October 26 with four weekly flights on the Tel Aviv-Copenhagen route, and Blue Bird launched flights to Bologna earlier in the month.
What we are seeing this year is the convergence of two processes, summarizes Asaf Greenberg, VP of Marketing at lastminute. Israel is concluding a very concentrated window of Tishrei holidays, while the market simultaneously enters autumn with greater capacity and the return and expansion of foreign carriers. When these two factors happen together, the ratio of supply to demand changes rapidly, which is reflected in prices.
Shifts in Search Trends and Destinations
In addition to falling prices, search data indicates a significant shift in demand for September and October compared to the same period last year. Sicily leads with a 131% surge in searches, followed by Baku (70%) and Hanoi (61%), with Seoul, Zanzibar, Prague, Athens, Tbilisi, and Paris registering increases of roughly 20% to 50%. More modest increases of 1% to 7% were recorded for Barcelona, New York, and Tokyo.
Conversely, searches for Lisbon dropped by 36%, London decreased by 29%, Budapest by 15%, Rome by 14%, and Dubai by 13%. Meanwhile, booking data for October points to strong demand for Dubai and Baku, whereas Bangkok, which topped the list during the same period last year, is absent from the leading destinations this season.
