The crowd at the fourth JFK terminal last Sunday airport was typical of a flight between New York and Tel Aviv. Young families with small ones, orthodox Jews dressed conservatively, and the 20th year of Israeli travel all people full of people busy with the busy gate.
But among the traditional black carriages and hats were some curious distances: the types of technique, lined with vests decorated with logos like google or carrying backpack bearing the names of other Israeli and multinational technology giants.
Flight – Archia 992 – was the first of its kind to leave JFK and was extraordinary simply because it managed to get off the ground. Archia is the first new Israeli airline to start in the US in decades.
After more than 16 months of war with Hamas, Israel has not been simply avoided by global cultural and political groups; The country is also practically closed by the rest of the world.
Almost every global airline has stopped flying to Tel Aviv, including key US carriers such as United, Delta and American – despite the US trio did not receive official detention requirements or security guidelines from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Indeed, before October. 7 Hamas, United, American and Delta attack collectively offered nearly 60 weekly flights between JSC and Tel Aviv, according to Mikey Levy, CEO of Coterie Travel Club, a Aviv -based corporate travel specialist.
Today, only the national carrier from to the flies in Israel from the US, sending the ticket prices that rise and the availability of seats.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of plane sites that suddenly miss from the most important market for Israeli technology companies, says Levy.
The result: Israel’s aviation crisis has become more than just a matter of tourism. It has emerged as a serious economic concern and, more and more, political concern. Last November, rap bronx. Ritchie Torres accused us the airlines of “Israeli boycotting”, leaving travelers who want to fly between JSC and Israel “at the mercy of a monopoly”.
A similar feeling was expressed by Texas without. Ted Cruz, who in January called on US carriers to return to Tel Aviv.
President Trump has also weighed, stating in January that he would “force” US airlines to return to Israel. Eyal Hullata, a former national security adviser to the two Israeli primary, has even described the ban on the airline as “playing in Iran’s game” to isolate Israel from “the rest of the world”.
Meanwhile, between (and partly as a consequence of) aviation slowdown, Israel’s economy is fighting – decreasing by 4.1% over the last quarter of 2023, compared to 6.4% growth in 2022.
Part of this is the second to tourism, which has come to one stop, with American tourists “who have evaporated almost” over the past 18 months, explained Henry Harteveldt, president of the San Francisco -based atmosphere research group.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, arrival from the US decreased by nearly two -thirds between 2023 and 2024, with total global tourism figures with nearly 70%.
Although the economy has been somewhat recovered, the damage has been undeniable. For example, total exports are reduced by nearly 10%-with high-tech goods that make up nearly half of Israeli exports.
That is why the adult airline countries are so important to the Israeli economy, said Nicole Adler, professor of researching operations at Jerusalem’s Jewish University Business School.
“We are dependent on the global approach because our inner market is just very small,” Adler told the post. “So, the extremely expenditure access to the US markets puts our high -tech sector in a very poor position.”
Return to technology
Like many Israeli technology executives, Eynat Guez, CEO and the founder of Israeli firm Fintech Papaya, intuitively realized that the current airline situation was unstable.
Beyond the round trip tariffs of the Al-York Costs of Al-York as the $ 1,000 price increased by four and five times was the inability to find simply places, at any price.
“Despite the war, we were trying to convince the world that it was a business as usual,” says Guez, whose firm flew in collectively hundreds of flights to and from the US before the fighting began. “But there is nothing” ordinary “to tell a potential investor you can’t meet because you can’t find a flight abroad.
“We know we had to do something.”
“Let’s start a new airline” was the beginning of Levy, Guez and a consortium of Israeli technology leaders, who, as the war continued, kept little confidence in US carriers to return to Israel or EL in lowering prices of prices tickets.
Launching a new airline requires large amounts of capital along with sophisticated regulatory knowledge, especially on international roads. But Israel has long been known as the “beginner nation”, thanks to this wide and lucrative high -tech sector, which includes a full fifth of the country’s economy.
“We first start with ‘what if Guez explained.” We know that he had the question and a very thirsty customer base, so we incubated this idea as we would start. “
Such an opinion reflects a shift to the confidence of war times in much of Israeli society, as many are losing confidence in a government preoccupied with war and politics.
Like local social services groups and angry family associations, “Technology entrepreneurs have certainly proven to be political animals during this particular moment,” says Adler.
Despite an investigation launched by the Israel Competition Authority to determine if EL would have been engaged in “unfair” price practices, the government has refused to intervene and force the carrier to reduce tariffs in the US
“We were expecting and waiting and waiting and nothing happened,” Guez says. Meanwhile, from AL profits, surprisingly, more than two-and-fold increased in the second quarter of 2024 compared to a year ago.
And so the techair was born – or at least start to gestate.
Concept
Initially, Guez and other members of the Israeli High High Technology Forum envision leasing a plane by one of many international aviation enterprises leasing aircraft and operating airline topics.
In doing so, Hawver required concept evidence – confirmation that the group’s confidence that technology leaders would sign in a new carrier was more than just a hunt.
Last fall, the high -tech forum launched a website affecting newcomers but still slow plane, the airline hoping to begin. Possible passengers were asked not only for their interest in the new carrier, but to perform, a “Source of the crowd” style for buying places after it began.
Guez and Levy, who helped oversee the process, said they needed assurance that they could fill at least one -third of each flight in order to move forward.
Within a few days, dozens of companies.
Next was to find a current plane and determine which types of techair services can offer. With the few countries and the already high prices, a cabin of all economies made the best meaning-“reducing costs as it increases capacity,” Guez said.
As the talks continued with foreign landing groups, Guez and her team also considered internal solutions. Aware of El’s lucrative monopoly, Israeli Israeli and Archia carriers had watched the American market. However, both airlines should not perform until Tech Air enters.
Arkia, explains Ceo Oz Berkowitz, has considered a New York road since it was bought by the Nakash family – the founders of Jordache Jeans – nearly two decades. But Covid destroyed their latest plans, quickly followed by the war with Hamas.
Techair, who had both confirmed the stability of the market and provided considerable interest of the passengers, “proved a very short way to move from A to B,” Berkowitz continues.
And so, New York Street was launched by Archia last week, with Techair serving in a marketing and promotional capacity aimed at high -tech industry to ensure that firms like Guuez have access to tariffs both priced at reasonably and adapt to the need for their business.
Companies, for example, can change itineraries with minimal tariffs, as well as buy numerous places at one time, and then decide which workers will fill them and when.
“The goal is to maximize flexibility” company like its need, says Levy. Round travel fees between New York and Tel Aviv range from $ 1,000 to $ 1,200 similar to prices before the war begins.
Archia launch comes at a moment of precipitus for air travel to Israel. In the wake of the continued ceasefire with Hamas, both Delta and United announce a return to Tel Aviv flights this spring (American, noted mapsldt, facing a shortage of planes and no return date).
But with that fiery ceasefire and American carriers constantly withdrawing from Israel since the beginning of the war, communicating the nation’s technology has learned the difficult path that cannot be relying on foreign airlines to solve its internal economic challenges .
“Many can occur in the Middle East between now and spring,” Levy says. “After all, what Israel needs most is more Israeli flying to the SH.BA – and around the world.”
leakufman@nypost.com
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