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The prospect of peace after 15 months of bloodshed and tens of thousands of deaths has already led to a major budget airline reinstating flights from London to both Tel Aviv in Israel and Amman in neighbouring Jordan. Wizz Air has resumed links to both cities, with Amman flights using airspace in northern Israel.
Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, is believed to be reviewing its plans for links to Tel Aviv. Last week Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair DAC, told Reuters that he expected the airline to operate a full summer schedule to and from Israel.
At the same time, bookings to Egypt are surging. Philip Breckner, director of Discover Egypt, said: “I see an upturn, yes. There’s quite a few people saying, ‘We spoke to you last September and October, we made an inquiry, but we weren’t ready to book because of the ongoing situation, but now we would like to go’.
“They’re booking [Nile] cruises, Cairo, Alexandria, everything, Red Sea. It’s all booking.
“We’ve had last-minute bookings for people to go next week and in February and March, and we have the availability.”
Christmas and New Year were very busy in Egypt, with Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian tourists filling many of the Red Sea hotels.
Mr Breckner, who has been in the travel industry for 35 years, said: “The ultimate trip would be combining Egypt, Israel and Jordan. If there is a lasting peace, that certainly will build up and flights will start up again between Egypt and Israel.”
The Foreign Office warns against travel to Gaza, much of the occupied West Bank and areas of northern Israel bordering Lebanon and Syria.
All of Jordan is regarded as safe to visit apart from a 3km strip along the border with Syria.
Swathes of Egypt carry FCDO advice to stay away, but the key tourist locations along the Nile, the Suez canal and the Red Sea coast are regarded as low risk.
Since the start of the year, the Egyptian authorities have revealed new discoveries near Luxor on the Nile, including rock-cut tombs dating back almost four millennia.
The full opening of the much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum has not yet happened. “I think it will be a major thing with if and when they move the Tutankhamun collection there,” Mr Breckner said.
He urged travellers not to delay their trips to Egypt as tourist numbers rebuild. “It’s less pleasant going round round the temples and tombs when you when you’ve got hordes of people there. So going now while it’s still early days, so to speak, of the revival is probably better now than later.”
Egypt and Jordan have been hard hit by the cruise lines abandoning transits of the Suez Canals and calls at Red Sea ports, especially Aqaba. Were a lasting peace to settle on the region, it would still take years rather than months to restore cruises to the pre-2024 levels.
This post was originally published on here
