Arkia Israeli Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Bucharest to Tel Aviv. If you’re not Israeli don’t ever fly with this company! They have a separate security area in the airport and they are searching only the passengers who are not Israeli. I’m flying 17 years to Israel, I’m married with an Israeli citizen and I have never had such an unpleasant experience as with this airline They don’t have check in online And when I finished with the security and I finally arrived on the plane (who was 2,30 hours late) I was seating in the place that I had paid for (30$). The plane ticket costed me 182€. Before takeoff the stewards came to me and they asked if I agree to move from my seat because they have an old man in wheelchair. I asked them why they don’t place the man on place 1D who was free (and also on aisle). The answer was: those chairs are for the crew. So, they placed the man and his wife next to me, uncomfortable for them and for me. I’m attaching a photo with the places 1D, 1E and 1F which were free during the whole flight. The announcements made by the pilot during the flight were ONLY in Hebrew I would never recommend this airline

✅ Trip Verified | Chisinau to Tel Aviv. Today, 15.07,2019 (flight IZ310), my 21 year old sister was supposed to fly to Israel. She had an invitation, a return ticket, a stay of one week and cash - 700 euros. The security service of this airline mocked her: a lot of questions of a personal and intimate nature. They demanded her phone to view contacts and correspondence, dug through all the luggage that they were looking for is not clear. The mother who accompanied her daughter was also interrogated (they wanted to catch him in a lie). She refused to give the phone for inspection and also refused to undergo a personal search in a separate room. A single word about the Arkia security service argued her actions by saying that the girl looked younger than her years and seemed suspicious to them.

✅ Trip Verified | Recently I experienced flying with Arkia from Ramon Airport to Sde Dov. Check-in in Ramon Airport was quick, and ground staff were really nice and friendly, I don't recommend coming to the airport more than 1 hour before departure. Flight length was 35 minutes, cabin crew were friendly and gave water and cookies to the passengers. (Business Class passengers may order soft drinks as well), The airplane had a Business Class, but there is no difference in the seats or anything, upgrading costs about 40 Shekels (about 10$), but for a 35 minute flight really doesn't worth it. Landing was good. The airport is really small and cozy, the Israeli government has plans to shut down the airport in the next few months. I paid for the ticket 230 Shekels (about 60$), It is the average price for this route, I ordered my ticket one day before the flight, if you plan in advance you can fly from TLV airport to Ramon for only 90 Shekels (about 25$). There was no inflight entertainment system and no WiFi, not really important for a 35 minute flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Rome to Tel Aviv. They had us waiting 2 hours just to check in, because they lacked staff to conduct interviews for all the passengers. They never communicated with us why this check in process was so long (keep in mind, this is before going through security for the airport). Our flight was delayed two hours because of this, not because of mechanical difficulties or weather, but because of something they have control over, staffing. We did not get our meal voucher for a flight delayed two hours even though we are entitled to one. Once we got to our destination, all of us (150+) people were waiting 20 minutes at the baggage carousel before an Arkia staff member came to us to tell us most of our bags did not make it onto the plane. She didn't give us a reason, just told us to file a lost baggage claim. That line was over an hour long since there were so many of us. The Arkia worker at baggage claim asked me to fill out a paper about my bag, asked me for the address where I'd be staying, and my phone number. He said my bag would get here today and that I should receive my bag the same day. No. Thankfully I had my Israeli boyfriend with me to make my calls because there was no way this process could have been handled in English. It took them 4 days to get me my bag. I was literally in Israel this entire time, at the same place. Their reason? "You gave us an American number, we can't call that. And you are in Timrat, you really think we're going to try our luck in Timrat?" (Timrat is a really small town). I'm sorry, the instructions the Arkia baggage claim guy gave me was to write down my address of where I'm staying and my number, at no point did he say he needed an Israeli number or that Timrat was too far. After making four days of nightmare calls (they don't answer 90% of the time), we were able to get a hold of the driver (who was part of a different company) and he agreed to meet us somewhere so I could get me my bag. Basically, if we hadn't called a billion times, I would have never received my bag until I was leaving Israel. As if this wasn't a nightmare already, when I emailed Arkia to complain and to demand compensation for the headache they put me through, their customer service responded saying I needed to mail them all these kinds of documents that I do not have anymore and that it could take up to 10 weeks for them to make a decision. They should already know details about this flight and they should've contacted each passenger to offer compensation. This is a terrible company and I would highly advise, for your sanity, to take any other airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Tel Aviv to Stansted. Old plane, uncomfortable seats, disgusting food. Now have to fly back with them and can't get anyone from customer service to answer me a simple request for a change of date. Also in Israel they are known to have very bad customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Tel Aviv to Stansted. Arkia Israeli Airlines is just an awful airline. Website can offer no more than booking. Check-in is only available at a counter in the airport, so no seats can be chosen before. If baggage has not arrived you may find your baggage in another country (no info on the website regarding baggage). Hope mine will arrive soon. Ground service cannot provide any information on delayed flights. All they can say - You have to wait!

✅ Verified Review | Tel Aviv to Paris. I took 3 vacation days to travel to a wedding in Paris. This airline cancelled my outgoing flight, so instead of 5AM, I left at 3PM, thus missing one entire day in Paris. For the return, they changed the departure time from 1:30 in the morning Friday, to 10:30 Thursday evening, thus causing me to miss the entire wedding reception on Thursday evening, which was the purpose of my trip! They refused to cancel/refund my ticket - so I could reschedule with another airline, and refused to compensate me in any way. (I bought my ticket through Expedia. Expedia explained my situation to Arkia, but they refused to refund me). Basically I lost 3 vacation days, spent the entire first day in the airport, and missed most of the wedding celebrations.

✅ Verified Review | Absolutely awful experience with Arkia Israeli Airlines flying from Larnaca to Tbilisi via Tel Aviv. Arrived in the airport and told that my onward flight (Tel Aviv-Tbilisi) leg was cancelled, but I had the choice to fly to Tel Aviv anyway. Flew to Tel Aviv but my luggage got lost. Spent 2 hours filing a report as British Airways and Delta passengers had priority. Company rebooked me on the later flight and it was oldest airplane I have ever been in, falling apart and smelling like it hadn't been cleaned in months. Worst part, it's been 4 days and I have no idea where my suitcase is. No option to call and find out, all emails and messages are ignored!

I decided to fly Arkia Israeli Airlines, on Eilat - Tel Aviv route which just less that an hour flight distance, unlike 6 hours bus trip. Arkia Airlines had daily flights mostly operated by ATR 72 and Boeing757. Flights which are operated by B757 is considered "low cost" and one-way trip costs as few as 40$. Everything went smoothly while booking online and web site is user friendly. Low cost segment did not include checked baggage so you have 2 options either to pay while booking (5$) or pay at the airport (8$). Ground service at ETH airport was working quite efficiently. However I experienced one of the most strange security system ever. So basically in front of the terminal building if you do not have Israeli appearance security officers stop you and ask you some questions (like who are you, where do you travel to etc). After this he follows to another security officer for interviewing. Basically they ask you tons of questions about your trip especially if you are a foreigner like me. If you have been to any Arabic countries then questions will continue till "what was you room number at this particular destination" etc. I am writing this because this "process" will take at least half an hour. So give yourself plenty of time. Except this security process check in was problem-free then I proceed to gate. Eilat airport is very small with one or two coffee shop and is able to accomondate maximum 150 people at once. There was no sign of destination on screens at gate. But I could easily manage it as there were just 3 gates. Finally flight departed on time (3 minutes earlier even). Aircraft was old but well maintained Boeing 757. Actual flight lasted 35 minutes. Complimentary water, tea and coffee was served by very friendly crew members. I requested for refill no problems. Tight seats were ok for such a short flight. A toilet was basically equipped and clean. At Ben Gurion airport it arrived at Terminal 1. We transferred to terminal building by 2 two buses so no crushes. Finally free shuttle bus is operating between terminal 1 and terminal 3 where most of international flight are departing. So I could easily catch my flight back home. Overall experience is satisfactory. For domestic flights I would again use Arkia without hesitation but for international flight I would think twice as they operate same aircraft for flights to/from Europe.

TLV-ETH-TLV. Going over on Embraer 95, full flight, seats are ok, crew friendly, only water served as 30 min flight. Return Eilat to TLV in an ATR72, also full flight. 30 minutes delay in Eilat due to poor management of gates, they got passengers going to Sde Dov on our flight and had to get them off. This stupidity could have been avoided if the the gate agent would have listened to passengers (including me) asking him why a flight to TLV Ben Gurion Airport is boarding from a gate showing "Sde Dov". He just dismissed our questions with a grin. Obviously his irresponsible attitude cost the airline a 30 min delay, and 30 minutes for us sitting in a non air-conditioned cabin in 40c temp. Service during the flight was juice, cola, water and snacks. Crew friendly,and in good mood.