Palestinian Air

On the early of Sep. 1994, President Yasser Arafat issued a Presidential Decree No. 87/94 to establish the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority and appointed Mr. Fayez Zedan as the chairman. Mr. Zedan was assigned to initiate the organizational infrastructure for aviation in Palestine including the formation of the structural and executive administrations of the the Aviation Authority, building airports, establishing and operating the Palestinian Airline Company.

The recently opened Gaza Airport offers scheduled flights to nearby countries. Direct air travel is also available through Lod Airport.  Jordan and Egypt have open borders with Palestine.  By sea, Palestine can only be reached through ferries from Haifa, Israel. There are regular ferries to/from Haifia, Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt.

The airline was established on 1 January 1995 and started operations in June 1997 with a series of charter flights carrying pilgrims to Jeddah. The flights were originally slated to operate from Gaza, but due to an Israeli ban, the services operated from Port Said, in northern Egypt. Scheduled services began on 23 July 1997, operating from El Arish to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Palestinian Airlines transferred its base to Gaza following the opening of the airport in November 1998. The airline was grounded in October 2000 following the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada and was forced to move to El Arish International Airport in December 2001, after destruction of the runway at its previous base, Yasser Arafat International Airport, where it operated limited services. It is wholly-owned by the Palestinian Authority and has around 400 employees.