Israeli flag carrier El Al began restoring operations after airspace around Tel Aviv Ben-Gurion Airport was resumed for normal flight activities.
As Israeli forces launched a military air campaign against Iranian targets on June 13, El Al and other Israeli airlines were forced to ground regular services when the country's airspace was closed.
Carriers estimate that the impact of grounding was equivalent to $4 million per day.
“This estimate depends, among other things, on factors and calculations that are not certain at this time,” he adds.
It hopes to return to “a complete routine in the next few days…”, but it could take longer for demand to recover to pre-dispute levels.
“The effect of (military operations) on the company has not yet been clearly established,” says El Al.
The Israeli government plans to provide state guarantees of up to $8 billion to cover airline war risk insurance through a combination of previously approved frameworks.
Knesset, the Israeli Parliament's finance committee, said the two-year measure aims to “ensure continuity of operations” by both Israeli and foreign carriers.
From October 2023, it approved a merger of a $6 billion guarantee framework related to the Gaza conflict and a $2 billion guarantee from March 2022 on flights to the Israel-Russian route after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The warranty will be provided to insurance company Inbal to offset cancellations or reductions in insurance coverage.
Israeli Airlines can resume flights following the reopening of the country's airspace, but wider regional instability continues to block foreign airlines.
According to the Finance Committee, the state guarantee framework aims to encourage operators to maintain services to Israel after insurers warn that war risk coverage will be withdrawn.
The committee also said separate guarantees from 2022 and 2023 were “integrated into a single guarantee.”
It adds that this is the purpose of ensuring the risk of war between “Israel and foreign airlines” in order to “maintain economic and functional continuity” with Israel.
