Israir
Israeli airline
Israir Airlines Ltd., more commonly referred to as Israir, is an Israeli low-cost airline headquartered in Tel Aviv. It operates domestic scheduled and air taxi flights from Ben Gurion International Airport, and Ramon Airport as well as scheduled and charter international services from Ben Gurion International Airport to Europe and Asia. It also operates VIP flights, and is Israel's second largest airline after El Al, surpassing Arkia Israel Airlines during the coronavirus pandemic, employing some 350 staff.
History
Foundation and early years
Israir Airlines was established in 1989 as Kanfei HaEmek (Valley Wings) before changing its name to Israir Airlines in 1996. It is now wholly owned by the Rami Levi Group. The airline began with domestic services from Eilat Airport, Ben Gurion International Airport, Sde Dov Airport, and Haifa Airport in the north of the country. It expanded its operations to begin international charter flights in 1999, building up a route network that now covers much of Europe, as well as regularly flying to other destinations in Asia, Africa, and North America. The airline is said to have modeled itself on US low-cost carrier JetBlue.
The airline expanded operations across the Atlantic Ocean when regular charter service to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport was started in June 2004. Permission was granted to the airline to convert this to regular scheduled service by the Israeli government and the FAA on May 1, 2006.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Israir” as israeli airline. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as israeli airline. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q558002. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989, 1996, 1999 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Israir” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.