A plane belonging to Russia’s Yakutia airline has been seized at the Ben Gurion international airport in Israel’s Tel Aviv over unpaid debts, the company's director general has told TASS. "The Boeing-737 is under arrest at the airport of Israel over debts," Olga Fedorova said. The flight from Tel Aviv to southern Russia’s Krasnodar was detained for 28 hours. More than 100 passengers waited for another plane that arrived from Moscow. The airport’s management provided them with hotel accommodation and food. The plane was seized late on Saturday and the passengers were able to leave the airport only late on Sunday. The Yakutia Airlines is the largest air company in Russia’s Far East. It maintains a fleet of more than 20 aircraft manufactured in Russia and abroad. This year, the government of Yakutia has implemented a recapitalization in the amount of over 1.3 billion rubles ($20.8 million) to pay off the debts.

Over the first five months of 2015, Israel was visited by 135 thousand Russian tourists, which is 32% less compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, Israeli tourism authorities hope to see more visitors from Russia in the second half of the year. In 2014, 555.87 thousand Russian citizens visited Israel with recreation purposes; this is 17% of the total inbound tourist flow to the Middle East country. One of the measures aimed at attracting more Russians is the loyalty program for airlines operating flights to Israel. Participating airlines are to be reimbursed €45 for each passenger. A massive promotion campaign titled "Once in a Lifetime" is scheduled for this autumn as well as the business forum Israel - The Sea of Impressions aimed at promotion of Israel's sea resorts.

From July 28, Nordavia airline starts regular flights on the route Sochi - Tel Aviv - Sochi, the press service of the company Basel Aero reported to Interfax. Flights will be carried out once a week, on Tuesdays. Departure from Sochi Airport is at 18:25, arriving at the international airport Ben-Gurion (Tel Aviv) at 21:05. From Tel Aviv plane leaves at 22:05, arriving in Sochi at 00:40. The flight duration is 2 hours 40 minutes. The route will be served by Boeing 737-500 aircraft with a capacity of up to 130 passengers.

Hoteliers of Israel are willing to give special prices for Russian tourists, said Head of the Ministry of Tourism of Israel in Russia and CIS Ksenia Kobyakova. She noted that it might be an average discount of 10%. The Israeli hotels are interested in keeping tourist flow from Russia and ready to become members of this program, which can be accepted for the May holidays," Kobyakova said on the international tourism exhibition "Summer -2015 "in Yekaterinburg. She noted that some Israeli hotels already provide a discount on average by 10%.