Pobeda suspends flights to Israel’s Eilat over coronavirus

MOSCOW, Mar 11 (PRIME) -- Russian low-cost airline Pobeda has suspended flights to Israel’s Eilat from Thursday until May 12 due to the country’s ban on entry of tourists amid the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson for the airline told PRIME on Wednesday.

“Low-cost Pobeda ... suspends flights from Moscow to Eilat from March 12 (Thursday) until May 12, 2020 in connection with a decision by the Israeli government to ban tourists from entering the country due to the situation with the spread of coronavirus,” the statement said.

“We cancel planned flights to Israel. But we know that our customers are stranded in Eilat, so on March 12 (Thursday) and on March 14 (Saturday) Pobeda will fly empty planes to Eilat to perform return flights and return our customers home,” the airline said citing CEO Andrei Kalmykov.

Previously, Pobeda made flights to Eilat three times a week.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended entry restrictions to all countries and ordered all Israelis to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days upon returning home.

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