President Shimon Peres will visit South Korea and Vietnam in early June, and will take Arkia Airlines Ltd. flight, after the airline offered a cheaper rate than El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) in a tender. Arkia offered a Boeing 757, which will have to make a refueling stop, for $700,000. Peres decided to forego the Boeing 767, which can make the trip non-stop, offered by El Al.
Peres will be accompanied to Seoul by an entourage of 60 businesspeople.
For the Vietnam leg of the trip, Peres will use an especially small corporate jet, which was chosen by tender. The entourage of businesspeople will take a commercial flight from Seoul to Hanoi. The Arkia plane will return directly to Israel from Seoul with the businesspeople who are not continuing to Vietnam, in order to save maintenance costs on the plane.
Peres will be accompanied by Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon, and Manufacturers Association president Shraga Brosh. The businessmen include executives from Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT), Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., ECI Telecom Ltd., RAD Data Communications Ltd., and NaanDan Jaine Irrigation Ltd.ץ
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 27, 2010
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