Israir Airlines
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| Founded | 1989 (as Knafei HaEmek) 1996 (as Israir Airlines) |
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| Fleet size | 5 | ||||||
| Destinations | 19 scheduled | ||||||
| Company slogan |
Why pay more? למה לשלם יותר? |
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| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel | ||||||
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| Website | israirairlines.com | ||||||
Israir Airlines Ltd. (Hebrew: ישראייר), usually referred to as Israir, is an Israeli airline headquartered in Tel Aviv. It operates domestic scheduled and air taxi flights from Sde Dov Airport, Haifa Airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, and Eilat Airport, as well as international charter services from Ben Gurion International Airport to Europe and Asia. It also operates VIP flights, and is Israel's third-largest airline after El Al and Arkia Israel Airlines, employing some 350 staff.
Israir Airlines was established in 1989 as Kanfei HaEmek (Valley Wings) before changing its name to Israir Airlines in 1996. It is now wholly owned by the Ganden Group. The airline began with domestic services from Eilat Airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, Sde Dov Airport, and Haifa Airport in the north of the country. It expanded its operations to begin international charter flights in 1999, building up a route network that now covers much of Europe, as well as regularly flying to other destinations in Asia, Africa, and North America. The airline is said to have modeled itself on US low-cost carrier JetBlue.
The airline expanded operations across the Atlantic Ocean when regular charter service to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport was started in June 2004. Permission was granted to the airline to convert this to regular scheduled service by the Israeli government and the FAA on May 1, 2006. This service was discontinued in September 2008, due to escalating fuel prices and the expectation of a drop in the number of passengers due to the weakness of the dollar at the time. After Israir was granted permission to operate scheduled the service on the lucrative New York-Tel Aviv route, it also entered talks with both Boeing and Airbus regarding the acquisition of new aircraft to its fleet and replacement of its existing jets. The company was said to be in talks with Airbus over the A350 model. It also signed a deal to acquire Airbus A320 aircraft. This was a significant milestone in Israeli aviation, as no airline had ever before purchased Airbus aircraft. In April 2008, the airline received an Airbus A330 for its New York flights to replace the Boeing 767 aircraft it had previously been wet-leasing. Israir however meanwhile no longer flies to New York and has since phased out all long-haul aircraft.
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