JERUSALEM, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's flagship airline, El Al, on Monday announced that it will not resume direct flights to Morocco's Marrakech and Ireland's capital Dublin in the new flight season due to low customer demand.
Both flights were canceled during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict that started on Oct. 7, 2023, and will not be resumed in the summer flight season starting April, said El Al in a statement.
The airline mentioned that since the Israeli National Security Council issued travel advisories against Morocco, there has been "a decrease in demand for the Marrakech flights," which were finally halted last October.
It added that the advisories were raised over potential security concerns about Israelis visiting Morocco due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Direct flights between Israel's Tel Aviv and Morocco's Marrakech were launched in July 2021, about seven months after the two countries officially normalized relations.
El Al said it will not restart the direct flights between Tel Aviv and Ireland's Dublin either, which were launched last March but were curtailed a few weeks after the outbreak of the Gaza conflict amid a significant drop in customer demand.
The relations between Israel and Ireland have deteriorated since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict. In early November, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar condemned Israel's attacks in Gaza as "something approaching revenge."
In late January, El Al announced the cessation of direct flights to South Africa due to a drop in demand as well.
The airline attributed the drop to the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice for its "genocide acts" in Gaza. ■
