Air Haifa takes off—just not from the north, for now

The new Haifa-based airline will operate three fuel-efficient ATR 72-600 propeller planes to service the small Haifa runway.

By Etgar Lefkovits, JNS

It’s wheels up for Israel’s fourth airline.

Air Haifa is scheduled to launch operations on Monday, though currently not out of its base in the northern Israeli port city due to the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The airline’s inauguration comes at a turbulent time for the Israeli aviation industry amid nearly a year of war, with many foreign carriers, including all three U.S. legacy airlines, still not flying to and from Tel Aviv, and many major European carriers who had resumed flights halting service anew this month due to the escalating security situation in the north.

The new, low-cost airline, Israel’s first since the 1990s, will start service Monday morning with two daily domestic flights from Israel’s main airport near Tel Aviv to the southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat for 99 shekels ($27) each way until Oct. 11.

Subject to the security situation, Air Haifa said it plans to begin operating the first flight from Haifa International Airport to Eilat after Yom Kippur on Oct. 13, and on Oct. 14 from Haifa to Cyprus.

A one-way flight from Haifa to Eilat currently sells for 139 shekels, or about $38, while a ticket from Haifa to Larnaca is going for 239 shekels, or $65.

The airline, which received final approval to fly this month and had its three airplanes and crew ready to go, decided not to delay its launch despite the flare-up in Lebanon making its planned flights out of Haifa temporarily impossible.

Hezbollah has rained nearly 10,000 rockets on northern Israel since Oct. 8.

“When the war in Lebanon ends, servicing the north could be economically viable, but for now and in the short term there is no market for them,” Mark Feldman, Jerusalem director at Diesenhaus Tours, told JNS on Sunday.

Last weekend, the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recommended airlines not fly to Israel and Lebanon through the end of October, prompting a new wave of airline cancellations ahead of the Jewish High holidays, in a move criticized as politically-motivated by Israeli aviation officials.

Northern carrier

The small Haifa airport, which is located at the eastern entrance to the city, was established by the British in 1934. It was the first international airport in Israel before the construction of Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv that same year.

With a runway only 4,324 feet long, limiting plane size and range of destinations, the Haifa airport—even before the war began last year—has had very minimal service.

The new Haifa-based airline will operate three fuel-efficient ATR 72-600 propeller planes to service the small Haifa runway.

Air Haifa was founded last year by a team of entrepreneurial Israeli aviation professionals, led by the American-Israeli founder of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks, Nir Zuk, together with former senior executives of the Jewish state’s flagship carrier, El Al Israel Airlines.