June 29, 2001 - SKY Israel’s German Subsidiary Releases Website

-By L.W. Wood (VANF)

FRANKFURT, Germany - Avi Mayer, President and CEO of SKY Israel Virtual Airline’s announced yesterday the opening SKYde’s new website.

“All pages are present, all forms are working properly, and the airline has already started accepting pilots,” said Mayer.

SKYde is the European subsidiary of SKY Israel, providing international and domestic connections from its single hub in Frankfurt.

Originally a fully incorporated subsidiary of Lufthansa Virtual Airlines, SKY Israel acquired the SKYde earlier this year in a buyout.

Additionally, SKYde is apparently conducting a massive hire-on for multiple high-level positions.

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June 18, 2001 - SKY Israel Releases German Carrier’s Website

-By Gary Kulash (VANF)

FRANKFURT, Germany - After more than a month in development, SKY Israel Airlines’ new German subsidiary has released its corporate website for public viewing as of this evening. In a news conference that was held shortly after 7:30PM Eastern Time, CEO Avi Mayer told the media that SKYde had completed the majority of work on its web page this weekend.

Mayer, who said that the new web page was “…similar to the SKY Israel website in layout,” was quick to point out that the German subsidiary’s site was “…quite different in content” despite its similarities with the parent company’s page.

The SKYde page isn’t entirely ready for business just yet, though. According to Mayer, the carrier is still attempting to make finishing touches to parts of the new site.

Visitors to the page this weekend were able to view a timetable displaying flights to and from cities such as Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Tel Aviv that were already being operated by the SKYde commercial fleet, according to Mayer, who said that pilots were invited to begin submitting their pilot reports “immediately.”

The release of the official SKYde website also made available the company’s first commercial aircraft. The airline’s recently purchased Airbus A320 was published on the page and can be downloaded by visitors.

Mayer said that the new regional jet was “…painted by the great people at the ATCWorldStar Alliance [and] features the colors of the German flag on its tail, with large ‘SKYde’ titles on [both sides] of the fuselage.”

He went on to tell the media that the release of the page marked a “…great day in the histories of both SKY Israel and SKYde Airways,” adding that he hoped the German carrier would be as successful in the future as SKY Israel has become in the past months.

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June 16, 2001 - Larter Joins SKY Israel as Director of European Operations

-By Stephen Ryan: Sat Jun 16 20:05:45 2001

JERUSALEM, Israel - James Larter is moving into his new office at SKY Israel after leaving his previous employer, British Midland Virtual Airlines, where he, "...occupied a very high-ranking executive position." The hiring announcement was made this morning by Avi Mayer, President of SKY Israel.

Larter's new job will be to spearhead the expansion of SKY Israel into the European market and to maintain steady flight operations throughout the region. According to Mayer, Larter has already begun work on the entry of SKY Israel into the region and new flights will be announced shortly, though no specific dates were given.

Larter's official titles are Vice President - Director of European Operations.

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June 13, 2001 - SKY Israel Marks 5,000 Website Hit

-By Jonathan Rone (VANF)

JERUSALEM, Israel - On Monday night, officials at SKY Israel told the media that the corporate website received its 5,000th hit during the weekend. The event has been considered by officials to be a major accomplishment even with the unrest in the Middle East. At this rate, the company is expecting 10,000 hits by the end of the year.

To CEO Avi Mayer, the event to him is "...very impressive...[and] shows that...its booming popularity [has] dropped during the latest Middle Eastern unrest."

In celebrating this event, the carrier has decorated its corporate website reflecting the accomplishment.

Although unrest in the Middle East continues, Mayer says that SKY Israel will not cancel flights to and from Israel.

"SKY Israel hereby declares that services from, to, and within the State of Israel will not be affected by the latest violence in the region," said Mayer.

However, officials at SKY Israel noted that services to Egypt and Jordan are still suspended.

The temporary suspension was put into effect during the month of November last year when "...Egypt recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and after Israeli diplomats were shot in Aman," Mayer cited.

SKY Israel officials warn that if "...the situation in the Middle East escalates any further, a cancellation of these routes would mean a complete halt to SKY Israel services in the Arab world.”

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May 24, 2001 - SKY Israel Purchases Eight New Airbus Jets

-By Gary Kulash (VANF)

JERUSALEM, Israel - In the airline’s first commercial aircraft purchase since a botched agreement with Fairchild-Dornier, SKY Israel Airlines today announced that it had placed orders for some eight Airbus A320 jets this week.

The planes, which were ordered from the European based aircraft manufacturer sometime over the course of the weekend, will be distributed in groups of four to both SKY Israel itself as well as the carrier’s new German based subsidiary, SKYde.

The recently signed agreement also allows for the option of four additional A320s to be ordered by SKY Israel in the future.

“We expect that both airlines will borrow aircraft from each other according to need and according to season,” Mayer commented, adding that the purchase represented the carrier’s first move to order new planes since what he called a “…bungled Fairchild-Dornier affair, in which an order for three 328JET aircraft was cancelled and one aircraft returned after discoveries of Fairchild-Dornier’s poor history with regard to its operations in Israel.”

SKY Israel Airlines management have had a nationalistic attitude of sorts since the carrier’s opening, which has also caused the company to pull its commercial flight service to entire countries when they are in a controversial dispute with Israel or in some cases the Jewish community.

That won’t be the case with this new order, though, according to Mayer.

“We are determined to keep our new birds,” he said, telling the media that construction of the smaller jet aircraft had already begun at Airbus’ Toulouse location.

When the planes have completed their assembly process, Airbus will transport the commercial jets to the headquarters of the ATCWorldStar Alliance subsidiary, SkyStar Aviation, so that they can undergo the steps of being painted into the Israeli based company’s livery.

Following the livery being placed onto the A320s, the jets will be flown to Tel Aviv, whewre Mayer said that the aircraft will officially be accepted into the SKY Israel fleet during a ceremony.

Although an exact date for the planes to enter into commercial operations was not announced, Mayer did state that he expects the entire manufacturing and painting process to be complete within several weeks.

The arrival of the new A320s won’t mean the immediate death of the SKY Israel fleet of Boeing 737-200s as some had speculated, though. According to spokespeople, the carrier is planning to continue its use of the several decade old jets until the final eighth A320 arrives in Tel Aviv later this summer.

Mayer did not comment on what the carrier plans to do with the aging Boeing jets after the newer Airbus’ arrive.

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