After twenty years, the Nakash household is promoting its controlling stake in airline Arkia, reportedly for NIS 40-50 million. The street forward is not going to be simple for the brand new homeowners. Initially, simply in the present day (Thursday), the Histadrut’s Transport Employees Union declared a labor dispute on the firm, citing “a collection of unilateral measures being superior by Arkia’s homeowners, primarily effectivity initiatives and workforce reductions.”
This would be the first problem going through the buying group, which incorporates Kidan Dahari and Yaron Adib, homeowners of the Ispro-Tnuport Group. At this stage, discussions are happening between the Histadrut, the employees’ consultant physique, and the potential patrons, because the events enter an evening of negotiations. The Histadrut (Basic Federation of Labor in Israel) has acknowledged that no deal will probably be finalized with out the employees’ consent.
Even when this hurdle is cleared, the buying group will inherit an organization in want of a significant overhaul. Estimates counsel the corporate misplaced roughly $30 million through the first three quarters of the 12 months, and it’s projected to finish the 12 months with a complete lack of $50 to $60 million.
“The brand new buyers will inject capital that ought to stabilize the corporate, and there’s a robust probability that operations will proceed as normal, at the very least within the brief time period,” says Dr. Uzi Freund-Feinstein, an aviation knowledgeable and senior college member within the Division of Tourism and Resort Administration at Kinneret Tutorial Faculty. It’s price noting that the trade is now coming into the winter months, a interval when airline income usually declines considerably. Consequently, even when the investor group succeeds in stabilizing the corporate, it’s going to take time earlier than they see any income.
Trying additional forward, Freund-Feinstein is considerably extra skeptical. “Within the medium time period, they might want to work out how you can pull the corporate out of its present cash-flow gap and remodel it right into a worthwhile enterprise. This can be a extremely advanced and difficult concern within the air transport sector, an trade during which dropping cash is all too simple, whereas turning a revenue is troublesome.” Moreover, the brand new group of patrons doesn’t come from the aviation trade, which means they might want to appoint consultants from the sphere to work alongside them. “Very similar to the scenario at Israir, the place Uri Sirkis manages the corporate whereas Rami Levy handles the monetary facet, they might want to discover managers with trade experience who can steer the corporate in a optimistic course.”
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One other space requires enchancment at Arkia is customer support. Based on Ben Gurion Airport’s operational information, Arkia is the Israeli airline with the best variety of delays (averaging 58 minutes for departures and 46 minutes for arrivals). Amongst all airways working at Ben Gurion Airport, Arkia ranks fifth for delays. On this context, it seems that the brand new homeowners’ job, past stabilizing the corporate, will probably be to enhance the standard of its service.
“Finally, that is excellent news for vacationers,” concludes Freund-Feinstein. “This might mark the tip of the saga at Arkia and the start of a brand new chapter. As for the staff, firms typically resort to downsizing when going through difficulties, so it is going to be fascinating to see what occurs.”
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on November 12, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.
