The company chose not to comment on the date of its activity, but Globes has learned that they have begun the hiring process. The Minister of Transportation recently announced that “Air Haifa” will start operating flights this coming June, but the estimates are that the move will happen in July. In the first phase, domestic flights will be operated from Haifa to Eilat, and then flights to Cyprus will begin.
While experts in the aviation industry agree that this is great news for the residents of the north, they express doubts. According to them, although it is a potential for reducing the load in the airport and providing fast service for the passengers, the company is expected to face difficulties.
A problematic airport
The airport in Haifa is the oldest in the country, having been built even before its establishment by the British in 1934. The port, located at the eastern entrance to the city, was used by the British Royal Air Force and the joint oil company for Iraq and Great Britain. With the end of the British mandate, the port was handed over to the Haifa municipality, and today it is managed by the Israel Airports Authority.
As of today, Israeli airlines do not operate at Haifa airport. Oz Berlovich, CEO of Arkie, explains that one of the reasons the company stopped operating at the port is the inability to extend the existing runway there, and bring in large planes. “The length of the runway in Haifa is not suitable for the operation of planes of our size. It’s a shame that the State of Israel chose to expand the seaport in Haifa without considering the expansion and extension of the air route,” he says.
According to him, the runway in Haifa is 1,200 meters long, but if they extended it to 1,500 meters, “Arkia could operate flights from it to nearby destinations and the Greek islands, in flights of an hour and a quarter. If they extended the runway to 1,900 meters, we would be able to fly to destinations in Europe”.
Dr. Uzi Freund-Finstein, a lecturer in the department of tourism and hotel management, Kinneret Academic College, explains that “the field in Haifa is limited because since the British left it, they have built buildings around it, the refineries for example, which make it difficult to expand the route in its direction – while the other direction is the sea As soon as they established the Chinese port in Haifa, it created additional restrictions on the airport.” He further adds that the field does not have enough parking or means of transportation, such as public transportation.
In the past, international companies operated flights from the northern airport. According to Dr. Freund-Feinstein, “Tos Airways (a Cypriot airline, SL) realized very quickly that they had nothing to look for there.” According to the Airports Authority, even before the war, traffic to and from the Haifa airport was only possible for planes that operated with gas rigs.
“chance tends to zero”
Sources in the industry predict that the new airline is expected to face difficult challenges. “The chance of such a company rising is close to zero,” says an official in the aviation industry. “The company had a place when there was normal aviation in Israel. It’s hard to estimate how many flights the company will really take out per week, in my estimation, top four, and to be economical you have to fly much more.”
Dr. Freund-Feinstein also believes that it will not be easy for the company. “In the short term it can succeed, but in the medium and long term I doubt it. Behind ‘Air Haifa’ are very serious and experienced people, it’s a bit puzzling how this business will work. They want to establish an airline, which according to the claims will provide a low-cost service, with turbo-pro planes. This means that the flights will be short-haul and will have less than 80 passengers.
“Besides that the airport is limited, low-cost companies do not operate such planes. They need to reach a high volume of activity quickly, they need a terminal that can accommodate enough passengers. Low-cost companies’ planes are usually in the order of 180 seats. When we look at low-cost companies Other coasts, they need as many passengers as possible to be financially viable.”
The turbo-pro planes are indeed economical in fuel, but as the experts explain, the ability to bring in money is limited when there are few passengers. “An 80-passenger plane requires two pilots and two flight attendants. They will probably work in a format of minimum expenses. When they say low-cost, they mean that the operation will be cheap, but not necessarily the prices,” says Freund-Feinstein. “Usually we think of flights for 10 euros when we think of low-cost. But there are cases when the companies keep the cost prices low, and the flight prices are high.”