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Air Canada and Transat A.T. both said they welcome an enhanced air transport capacity regime between Canada and Israel.
Marc Garneau, Canada’s Minister of Transport, and his Israeli counterpart, Yisrael Katz, recently announced the new regime, which will see the number of weekly frequencies between the two countries increase from 12 to 19 weekly return flights.
“Air Canada welcomes the expansion of the Canada-Israel air transport agreement as it will allow us to enhance our network and further advance our successful international expansion strategy. We look forward to increasing our services to Tel Aviv, which currently comprise of daily non-stop service from Toronto and seasonal non-stop flights from Montreal. Air Canada is the only airline to offer fully-lie flat seats in International Business Class on flights between the two countries,” said Benjamin Smith, president, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada. “We thank the Canadian government and congratulate it on its success negotiating this new agreement, which will enable us to offer more travel options to our customers.”
Air Canada has operated flights between Canada and Israel since 1995. In addition to its non-stop Toronto-Tel Aviv year-round daily service, Air Canada launched seasonal, non-stop service between Montreal and Tel Aviv in June 2017 that resumes in May and which it is planning to increase to three-times weekly this summer from twice weekly last year.
“We congratulate the federal government for reaching an expanded air transport capacity arrangement with Israel. This deal will open up new development and growth possibilities for Canadian-based international carriers such as Air Transat,” said Jean-Marc Eustache, president and chief executive officer, Transat.
Air Transat made its first foray into the Middle Eastern region in the summer of 2017 when it launched direct flights between Montreal and Tel Aviv. Building on that success, it will be offering three direct flights per week out of Montreal this summer, along with service from Toronto supported by connecting flights. The new program begins May 23.
“The expanded air transport agreement between Canada and Israel is a positive development for air transport relations between our countries,” said Garneau. “We are pleased to expand this relationship with additional flexibility for airlines to serve this growing market. By making the movement of goods and people faster and easier, this expanded agreement will continue to facilitate trade and investment between Canada and Israel and help our businesses grow and succeed.”
“Canada is a true friend of the State of Israel and we are grateful for their deep support,” said Katz. “The expanded agreement with Canada is another step in the liberalization policy that the Israeli Ministry of Transportation is leading in the aviation sector and it opens additional possibilities to Israeli airlines for cooperation agreements with other foreign carriers in Europe and North America. The agreement was initiated within the Israeli framework of open skies reform and the general strengthening of bilateral, commercial and economic ties between Israel and Canada. The implementation of the expanded aviation agreement is expected to lead to an improvement in the level of service on flights to and from Israel and to an increase in the level of competition among airlines, as well as a drop in airfares and an increase in passenger and cargo traffic to Israel.”
Quick Facts
- The original Canada-Israel Air Transport Agreement was signed in 2015. This expanded agreement was reached under Canada’s Blue Sky policy, which encourages long-term, sustainable competition and the development of international air services;
- Under the Blue Sky Policy, the Government of Canada has concluded new or expanded air transport agreements covering more than 100 countries.
