Arkia, Israel’s second-largest airline, made history on June 28 when it became the first Israeli airline to charter a flight to Svalbard Airport in the Arctic Circle, the northernmost commercial airport in the world, Arkia Airlines announced.
To accomplish this feat, Arkia collaborated with Spirit World Productions, a travel agency, and Phototeva Travel Expeditions, which specializes in polar expeditions in remote locations, including the Arctic.
Working together, the three Israeli groups successfully guided Arkia’s Airbus A320 on the approximately 10-hour journey from Israel to the Norwegian-controlled island of Svalbard, with a refueling stop in Helsinki, Finland.
'A new page in the history of Israeli tourism'
Arkia’s project could lead to “a new page in the history of Israeli tourism,” Tali Yativ, owner and CEO of Spirit World Productions, noted.
Svalbard Airport, located near the small town of Longyearbyen, is just over 1,300 km from the North Pole, making it the world’s closest airport to the North Pole that runs scheduled flights.
“The special project we carried out together with Spirit [World Productions] is another example of Arkia’s high operational capability,” Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz said.
“We are proud to lead historic and unique aviation missions beyond our regularly scheduled operations, and to continue to prove that Arkia knows how to give a professional response even in the most complex and challenging projects.”
Due to its location on the Arctic Circle, the island experiences frigid conditions during the winter, rendering its previous airport unusable during the winter months and leading to the construction and opening of Svalbard Airport in 1975, specifically built to withstand the harsh conditions of the Arctic Circle.