Palestinian Airlines to close after 25 years

Palestinian Airlines will be closing its carrier service after 25 years, the Palestinian Transport and Communications Ministry announced.

This comes after the airline offered its two remaining Fokker 50 aircraft, which were donated by the Netherlands, for sale in September.

Established in 1995, the company became operational in 1997, flying across the Middle East from Yasser Arafat International Airport in the Gaza Strip. However, the airport was destroyed by Israel in 2001 during the Second Intifada.

The airline moved to Egypt’s Al-Arish airport near the Gaza border but was forced to lease its aircraft and halted most of its activity by 2017.

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Ammar Yassin, the ministry’s undersecretary, told the Palestinian News Network (PNN) that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has not received offers for the plane parked in Amman and that the one parked in Cairo had been leased to an airline in Nigeria.

However, he explained that the contract was suspended as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic.

According to PNN, Palestinian Airlines had eight employees, two pilots, three administrative employees and three ground staff.