Jetairfly moves Israel link to Brussels Airport

Ostend-based Jetairfly, Belgium's second-biggest airline, has decided to change the departure airport for flights to Tel Aviv from Liege to Brussels-National from summer 2014. The flight was responsible for about 40,000 passengers passing through Liege.

“We don't really understand Jetairfly's logic very well. We are disappointed,” said a spokesperson for Liege airport.

The airline, meanwhile, explained its position in a statement. “This decision does not mean we will no longer be using Liege airport,” the company said. “It is the result of a repositioning of our activities, and our desire to respond to an increased demand for a flight out of Brussels.”

The Tel Aviv flight alone accounted for more than 10% of the total number of passengers using Liege, and will be hard to compensate, even with the arrival of a new operator, Air Corsica, also in the summer of 2014. Air Corsica will operate two flights a week to Ajaccio and Bastia, rising to four in high season, for a total of about 10,000 to 12,000 passengers a year.

Jetairfly has been flying to Tel Aviv since 2008, first twice a week and then since 2011 three times a week. The airline will maintain 15 other routes out of Liege in 2014.