“Any decent head of state flies a government aircraft.”
Agreed, but there’s more to this story.
1) The Israeli government doesn’t have a special airplane for Prime Ministerial use.
2) Netanyahu spent $1.3 million getting himself to the UN General Assembly in New York in September. He chose Arkia because he just couldn’t justify spending even more this time around. See, El Al was going to charge $1.4 million for this most recent trip. Netanyahu then issued a tender for the job, and Israir submitted a bid of $800,000 while Arkia asked for “just” $450,000. Arkia got the job. (source: Haaretz)
Netanyahu used a commercial plane to travel to the United States. The government chartered a plane from Arkia, a low-cost airline.
“Any decent head of state flies a government aircraft.”
Agreed, but there’s more to this story.
1) The Israeli government doesn’t have a special airplane for Prime Ministerial use.
2) Netanyahu spent $1.3 million getting himself to the UN General Assembly in New York in September. He chose Arkia because he just couldn’t justify spending even more this time around. See, El Al was going to charge $1.4 million for this most recent trip. Netanyahu then issued a tender for the job, and Israir submitted a bid of $800,000 while Arkia asked for “just” $450,000. Arkia got the job. (source: Haaretz)
Oddly enough, lower-level delegations, such as to Egypt, often fly military and private aircraft.