ISRAEL. Duty Free Americas (DFA) is keeping to its “normal routine” at Haifa International Airport despite local media reports Cypriot airline Tus Airways has pulled all flights there.
The retailer opened a duty free store at the Israeli airport one month ago, on the back of strong passenger growth largely driven by Tus’ international services. Traffic at Haifa has jumped by nearly +350% year-on-year so far in 2017 and was expected to keep on growing, DFA told The Moodie Davitt Report.
A DFA spokesperson said the company has so far received no official notice on the airline’s move from the Israel Airports Authority (IAA), and so continues to operate as normal. The spokesperson noted that DFA had “invested significant amounts” in the reconstruction of the duty free store at the airport “in order to ensure the best consumer experience”.
TUS Airways and the IAA have had disagreements over landing fees and the airport’s operating hours, the spokesperson said.
The introduction of TUS flights has seen Haifa emerge as an international destination airport, albeit a distant third behind Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International and Eilat Ovda. TUS began operating 29 weekly flights over the summer to Larnaca, Athens and the Greek islands of Rhodes, Kos and Paphos.
