The war in Israel is now also having an indirect impact on a holiday region in Jordan, as the number of bookings to Aqaba has now collapsed. The city mentioned is located not far from Eilat (Israel). Easyjet is now pulling the economic “emergency brake”.

The Aqaba and Eilat-Ramon airports share the oddity that they are virtually directly opposite each other and so close that both the monstrous border fence and the two airports are visible to the naked eye. Although the airports are in competition with one another, for political reasons it is not really “competition”.

This is due to the fact that border crossings from Israel to Jordan or in the opposite direction are subject to a fee. Depending on your citizenship, there are fees for visas and for carrying out border controls. These are really expensive and therefore it is not a good idea at all to land in Jordan with one low-cost airline and fly home from Israel (or vice versa) with the other low-cost airline.

The proximity to Israel is now making life difficult for Aqaba Airport, because those airlines that head to the Jordanian airport non-stop from/to Europe report unanimously that booking numbers have literally plummeted. We also hear from tour operators and travel agencies that they are confronted with rebooking and cancellation requests from customers. There are actually no more new bookings.

Low-cost airline Easyjet cancels Aqaba flights

Easyjet is now pulling the emergency brake and discontinuing Aqaba flights from a number of airports, which have previously always been an integral part of the winter flight schedule. Those affected are: Geneva, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lyon, Milan-Malpensa, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and London Gatwick. It is to be expected that the string of strings will continue to expand and that numerous other airlines, including Ryanair and Wizz Air, will thin out their Aqaba flights or possibly even cancel them.

The proximity to Israel - Aqaba and Eilat are located right next to each other in the same bay - is likely to lead many potential customers to not want to travel to this region due to their own security considerations. Although Jordan is not affected by the war, one cannot rule out the possibility that the conflict could emerge.

Eilat Airport is currently served almost exclusively by domestic traffic. Most carriers have canceled their international scheduled and charter flights for safety reasons. Eilat continues to be used occasionally for evacuation flights as some providers believe it is safer than flying from Tel Aviv. Some airlines are still considering what will happen in the winter of 2023/24, but the signs point to cancellation. Completely independent of this, Wizz Air had already decided before the outbreak of war that they would... will no longer fly between Eilat and Vienna. The route wasn't particularly successful anyway and was only offered because Israel subsidized heavily.

Taba (Egypt) is also suffering from weak booking figures

A third airport in this region is also severely affected by a collapse in demand. This is Taba Airport, which is located in Egypt not far from Eilat and is also assigned to the Gulf of Aqaba. In contrast to Aqaba and Eilat, this has only rarely been served regularly from Europe in recent years. Even the usual low-costers avoid this airport. By charter, usually carried out by Egyptian providers, there are certainly flights there from Europe on behalf of tour operators. There is also a connection to the Egyptair hub in Cairo. Charter flights to Taba are planned from České Budějovice from February 2024. Furthermore, Smartwings and Lot have previously had this destination in their program as part of charter orders. To what extent these will actually take place in winter 2023/24 is completely unclear.

Taba is an extremely run-down tourist resort that has been marketed in recent years as a cheap resort for Eastern Europeans. In direct comparison with nearby Eilat (border crossing also requires a fee) the difference is like night and day. Among other things, for the simple reason that Taba has long been in need of renovation, demand from the DA-CH region is no longer there.

But those EU markets in which tour operators market the Egyptian location have also collapsed in terms of demand. Here, too, it can be seen that the proximity to Israel deters potential customers and, for security reasons, they approach their tour operator with a request to rebook or cancel. Or if you haven't booked yet, you can choose another destination.

Recovery will take a very long time

The bottom line is that not only the city of Eilat (including Ramon airport) is suffering from the armed conflict in Israel, but also the neighboring towns of Aqaba and Taba (also including airports), which are not affected at all. The fears of potential passengers and package travelers that the conflict could also spread to border regions in Jordan and Egypt seem to be too great. It is therefore inevitable that things could be extremely quiet in Aqaba and Taba as well as at Eilat-Ramon Airport in the winter of 2023/24. Where there is no demand, airlines, especially low-cost airlines, do not fly for economic reasons.

The recovery is expected to take much longer. This is supported by the fact that Aqaba, Taba and Eilat were once completely overcrowded holiday destinations. In 2010, rockets hit a hotel in Eilat. Demand suddenly collapsed to virtually zero. Although Aqaba recovered much more quickly, Eilat was never able to return to its previous number of guests until the outbreak of the corona pandemic. It's similar in Taba, but the reason is probably that due to a lack of investment in the infrastructure - and especially its appearance - the entire place has become further run down and therefore less attractive.