The airline has reached an agreement with the workers' committee after about five months of paralysis • The company will take loans from the banks in the amount of NIS 130 million • The owners will inject $ 10 million in favor of collateral

Arkia and the workers' committee have reached an agreement that will allow them to be relocated and return to activity, after about five months during which the workers were in the IDF and the company's activities were almost completely silenced.

Photo: Paz Bar

The agreement signed tonight (Monday to Tuesday) is a business agreement between the company's owners, the Nakash brothers and the employees, who hold 30% of Arkia's shares - under the auspices and support of the Histadrut.

According to the agreement, the company will take out loans from the banks in the amount of NIS 130 million, and in addition the owners will inject $ 10 million from them in favor of collateral. For its part, the Histadrut will also support the process through a loan of one and a half million dollars, which will be transferred subject to the company actually returning to activity. 

Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David said: "It was a challenging time for the company, and it still faces many challenges. I have no doubt that everyone together in a joint effort will continue to do everything so that Arkia will continue to be a leading company in the Israeli aviation industry. "

Avi Edri, chairman of the Histadrut's Transportation Workers' Union, said the agreement was a first milestone in reopening Arkia, saying: "I am glad that the parties have agreed on both the business and personal level to act to motivate the company. All that is left is to regulate the rights of the workers, and we will take care of that in the coming days. "

Chairman of the Arkia Workers' Committee, Aliza Blaish: "I thank Avi Edri very much for his perseverance and mobilization wholeheartedly. From our previous experience we must note that the agreement will not be examined in a paper signed by Avi Hormero on behalf of the Nakash brothers, but on the question of whether they will abide by it as written and as worded. When we see an Arkia plane in the air, we will believe. "