Arkia employees vow to fight potential Haredi buyout that would halt Shabbat flights

Employees of Arkia Israel Airlines are threatening to wage a fight should the Nakash brothers, the controlling owners of the country’s second-largest carrier, move forward with talks to sell their shares to an ultra-Orthodox US entrepreneur, who insists on halting flights on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

Brooklyn-based Hasidic real estate developer Rabbi Ezra Unger, 36, is understood to be in talks to acquire control of Arkia. The Nakash brothers have been seeking a buyer for their more-than-70-percent holding in the Israeli carrier over the past couple of months. Arkia employees own a 22.1% stake in the local airline via the TUT – Aviation & Tourism Workers Corporation Ltd.

Speaking to The Times of Israel, Avi Edri, chairman of the Aviation & Tourism Workers’ Corporation, confirmed that during a recent meeting with Arkia representatives, Unger expressed his intention to cease flight operations on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. At this stage, there is no certainty that the negotiations with Unger will mature into an agreement, as the Naskash brothers are reportedly reviewing two other offers.

“As we are not selling and will remain a shareholder and partner in Arkia, we made it unequivocally clear to the Haredi investor that we would not agree to shutting down the airline’s operations on Shabbat,” said Edri. “It won’t happen. That would be akin to religious coercion, and, beyond that, it would incur financial losses.”

“We operate close to 2,500 flights a year on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, which translates into close to 70 working days a year,” he noted.

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“Beyond shareholders, we are also employees of the airlines and can fight a takeover that we can’t accept through labor disputes,” said Edri.

Owned by Jordache Enterprises, controlled by the Nakash brothers, Arkia operates domestic flights, multiple routes to major European cities, and, over the past year, expanded its operations to long-haul destinations, including New York, Thailand’s Phuket, and Vietnam’s Hanoi. The local carrier flies over 1.5 million passengers annually. The Nakash family, whose brothers Joe, Avi, and Ralph launched the Jordache Jeans empire in 1969 and took control of Arkia in 2006.

Arkia declined to comment on the sale talks, which were first reported by the Haredi news website, Kikar HaShabbat. Jordache Enterprises was not available for comment when contacted by The Times of Israel.

Edri said the workers’ corporation has a right of first refusal to find another buyer in place of Unger.

Among the country’s three main airlines, Israel’s flag carrier El Al has a decades-long policy of not flying during the Jewish day of rest and Jewish holidays, while smaller local rival, Israir, has reduced flight operations on Shabbat.