As war spooks foreign airlines, Israelis look to local start-up
It is named after a city that’s off-limits to civilian aviation due to incoming rockets and drones. Its fleet is just two propeller planes. And you won’t find it on Google Flights. But Air Haifa, among the few Israeli startups emerging during a year-old regional war that’s far from won, still has high hopes. A cascade of foreign carriers has shunned Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international gateway, meaning many in the country must turn to a handful of local alternatives to make the first leg of an overseas journey. Tickets are scarce and prices have skyrocketed. That’s created a niche for two-month-old Air Haifa. Unlike counterparts El Al, Israir or Arkia, it offers just one destination - Larnaca, in Cyprus - albeit six times each day. Flights to Athens are in the works. For all their tourist allure, both cities have become de-facto hubs for travelers to and from Israel. Thousands who were stranded overseas by flight cancellations over the summer were instructed by Israel’s transport ministry to make their way to Larnaca or Athens, and from there to be ferried to Tel Aviv aboard short-hop planes. That layover is now a semi-formal fixture, which meant that Air Haifa could count on a bonus clientele - connections passengers - when it launched the Larnaca route on Oct. 14. “We are seeing a lot of customers who come, even from the United States, through Europe on a connecting flight, and head to Cyprus for our flights, and vice-versa,” said Michael Strassburger, Air Haifa co-founder and executive vice president. That wasn’t how Air Haifa was conceived a year and half ago, before the Hamas attack from the Gaza Strip which triggered the war. The company had planned to base its operations in Haifa and serve some 3m people - around a third of Israel’s population - for whom the northern port city’s small airport would be closer than Ben Gurion, which is outside Tel Aviv. But the spread of fighting to southern Lebanon, 40 km (25 miles) from Haifa, meant the airline had to relocate operations to Ben Gurion and defer its planned services to Athens as well as to Eilat, Israel’s southern Red Sea port.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-11-18/unaligned/as-war-spooks-foreign-airlines-israelis-look-to-local-start-up
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As war spooks foreign airlines, Israelis look to local start-up
It is named after a city that’s off-limits to civilian aviation due to incoming rockets and drones. Its fleet is just two propeller planes. And you won’t find it on Google Flights. But Air Haifa, among the few Israeli startups emerging during a year-old regional war that’s far from won, still has high hopes. A cascade of foreign carriers has shunned Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international gateway, meaning many in the country must turn to a handful of local alternatives to make the first leg of an overseas journey. Tickets are scarce and prices have skyrocketed. That’s created a niche for two-month-old Air Haifa. Unlike counterparts El Al, Israir or Arkia, it offers just one destination - Larnaca, in Cyprus - albeit six times each day. Flights to Athens are in the works. For all their tourist allure, both cities have become de-facto hubs for travelers to and from Israel. Thousands who were stranded overseas by flight cancellations over the summer were instructed by Israel’s transport ministry to make their way to Larnaca or Athens, and from there to be ferried to Tel Aviv aboard short-hop planes. That layover is now a semi-formal fixture, which meant that Air Haifa could count on a bonus clientele - connections passengers - when it launched the Larnaca route on Oct. 14. “We are seeing a lot of customers who come, even from the United States, through Europe on a connecting flight, and head to Cyprus for our flights, and vice-versa,” said Michael Strassburger, Air Haifa co-founder and executive vice president. That wasn’t how Air Haifa was conceived a year and half ago, before the Hamas attack from the Gaza Strip which triggered the war. The company had planned to base its operations in Haifa and serve some 3m people - around a third of Israel’s population - for whom the northern port city’s small airport would be closer than Ben Gurion, which is outside Tel Aviv. But the spread of fighting to southern Lebanon, 40 km (25 miles) from Haifa, meant the airline had to relocate operations to Ben Gurion and defer its planned services to Athens as well as to Eilat, Israel’s southern Red Sea port.<br/>
