El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) is renewing flights to Turkey, after the Israeli security authorities banned Israeli carriers from making daytime flights there last year. The decision led to El Al cancelling its daily flight to Istanbul.
In order to bypass the security ban, beginning in March 2010, El Al will operate a daily flight to Istanbul via a Turkish airline, AtlasJet, whose planes will be converted for Israeli passenger service. The planes will have business class service, and passengers will be eligible for El Al frequent flier miles. Flights will be made with an El Al code-share.
Demand for the Tel Aviv-Istanbul route prompted Turkish Airlines, the only carrier on the route, to boost flights to four a day.
To get around security problems, and in order to give El Al passengers a solution for the Tel Aviv-Istanbul route, El Al board of directors approached Atlasjet to operate a daily flight on its behalf.
El Al's board decided that the airline will buy 75% of the seats on the route for $10 million per season, while Atlasjet will convert the public-announcement system on the planes making the flight to Hebrew and will serve only kosher food.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 10, 2009
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