Despite the sharp cut in tourism to Israel from October as a result of the Palestinian Intifada, Lufthansa reported that it had only a marginal drop in the number of passengers in 2000 compared to the previous year, reported The Jerusalem Post newspaper on Thursday.
Lufthansa's manager in Israel, Stephan Semsch, said that last year the company carried 284,038 passengers on the Tel Aviv route, 1 percent fewer than during 1999.
He said that this was largely due to the company's success in expanding the Israel market, where sales increased 35 percent, with 11 percent more passengers acquiring their tickets in Israel, according to the daily.
During the October-December period alone, Semsch said, the company carried 57,031 passengers on the Israel route, with an average seat occupancy of 76 percent.
He said that in 2000, Lufthansa carried 10,440 tons of cargo, an increase of 6.5 percent.
According to the report, this number did not include 500 tons that Lufthansa brought to Israel in El Al cargo flights.
According to a report published by Haaretz newspaper late November, the Israeli economy lost $1 billion due to the escalating situation in the Palestinian territories.
The report added that most economic indicators for both September and October (after the outbreak of the Intifada) pointed toward an economic slowdown.
These indicators include industrial production, exports, tourism and employment.
Meanwhile, Israel's airline company, El Al reported Wednesday that despite the challenges of a difficult market, it projects a 27 percent increase in the passenger load to the Far East.
El Al spokesman, Nachman Klieman, said that the company, seeing the growth potential of this destination, increased its passenger load to it 25 percent over the last two years, said the paper -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
