“Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. will make only four weekly flights to New York in 2007, because of the lack of a suitable plane, which would have allowed us to add flights,” says Israir commercial manager Shay Marina. The company yesterday published its new flight schedule of 25 weekly flights.
Israir has not increased its flights to New York, despite the high profitability of the route since obtaining designated carrier status for it. The airline uses a Boeing 767 on the route, which it plans to replace with an Airbus 330. It plans to acquire another Airbus in 2008, which will enable it to increase flights to New York and the Far East.
Israir will make four weekly flights to London this year, three each to Berlin and Paris, two each to Amsterdam, Munich and Nice; and one each to Bangkok, Ljubljana, Rome, Stockholm and Stuttgart. The airline will use two recently acquired Airbus 320s for its European destinations and a Boeing 767-300 wide-bodied airliner for New York and Bangkok.
Israir has obtained designated carrier status on routes to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and to Izmir in Turkey, but does not fly to the latter because it is not economical. The airline makes regularly scheduled charter flights to the other destinations.
Marina said that the issue of designated carrier status might be reopened soon following scheduled talks between the Ministry of Transport and the EU, and that all airlines would be allowed to make unrestricted scheduled flights. He said that Israir’s flight schedule was based on its results for 2006, when the airline had a 30% increase in passenger traffic.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 5, 2007
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