Medicines, chips and spare parts: The hole in Israel's emergency plan

The closure of Israeli airspace during the fighting against Iran exposed the economy's vulnerability regarding air cargo capacity. From an average monthly volume of about 30,000 tons in routine times, the volume of cargo in Operation 'Lion's Might' (June 2025) plummeted to 18,700 tons, and with the outbreak of Operation 'Lion's Roar' (March 2026) to only 16,000 tons.

In the vacuum created, when foreign companies abandoned the skies, the private company Challenge Airlines, alongside the single cargo plane of El Al, found itself among the only commercial entities that remained active. Alongside them, the Air Force also entered into action, having been mobilized to carry out dedicated cargo flights to bring critical equipment such as medicines, chips, and spare parts for the defense industries. On the shoulders of these entities fell the responsibility to keep Israel's supply lines open, and to transport to and from the country produce that cannot be delayed.

However, this crisis exposed a much deeper strategic problem: factors in the industry are now warning that the State of Israel does not have an orderly emergency plan for maintaining the continuity of civilian air shipping. The Air Force, despite its decisive role, cannot and is not intended to be a substitute for an ongoing commercial supply chain. If and when another campaign breaks out, the country will again be left without a government safety net for trade, being completely dependent on the initiatives of the private sector.

Expansion of private sector activity

For shipping companies, the expansion of activity is a direct response to unprecedented demand recorded since October 7, 2023. Challenge Airlines Israel announced that last week a large cargo plane with a carrying capacity of 120 tons landed in Israel, joining the company's fleet which until now stood at a capacity of 250 tons. By the end of August, a smaller plane (50 tons) is expected to be taken out of service, so the company will operate a fleet of three large cargo planes, each of which has a capacity of about 120 tons.

This expansion joins a series of other moves completed by the company in July, led by a significant upgrade of the cargo line between Tel Aviv and Mumbai. The old planes were replaced with modern and larger cargo planes, a move that almost doubled the flight capacity on the line. In parallel, the company is launching a direct and regular cargo line between Tel Aviv and Shanghai, with a frequency of three flights per week.

A sharp jump in insurance premiums

The growing need in the Israeli market has not escaped the eyes of foreign companies that are still active here. At the beginning of the week, the Azerbaijani cargo company Silk Way West Airlines, which operates a fleet of 14 dedicated cargo planes, announced the addition of two weekly flights on the Baku-Israel line. The flights in Israel are operated by the Maman Group, which specializes in unloading and loading general cargo as well as complex cargo such as medicines and animals.

To understand why the closure of the skies is so dramatic, one needs to look at the numbers. In Israel, similar to the global trend, air cargo constitutes a few percent of the volume of goods, but holds enormous economic weight. While sea ports are responsible for 99% of the volume of cargo arriving in the country, air cargo is responsible for about 30% of the monetary value of the goods. The gap is explained by the type of goods flown: products with high value or critical sensitivity to time, such as chips, electronic components, medical equipment, diamonds, and fresh agricultural produce.

Air shipping is considered an expensive channel, but a chain of global and local events has pushed costs even higher. The trend began with the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine and worsened significantly during the fighting against Iran. The fall of the dollar, the rise in fuel prices, and especially the jump in insurance premiums, have raised prices once again. During the fighting against Iran, when the airspace was almost closed, Challenge Airlines was required to pay a large addition to the insurance premium: between 70,000 and 150,000 dollars for every landing in the country. These costs were rolled directly onto the importers.

When will the package from Temu arrive?

Alongside industry and security, air shipping also has a direct impact on the Israeli consumer. However, it is important to clarify: the addition of planes and flights is not expected to reduce waiting times for packages. First, these packages constitute a relatively small share of the total air cargo. Second, the main barrier is not the shipping companies themselves, but a complex operational reality on the ground at Ben Gurion Airport.

The multitude of American refueling planes that have taken over the parking areas at Ben Gurion Airport creates a constant mix between areas intended for passenger flights and those intended for cargo. In the struggle for 'slots' (takeoff and landing windows), refueling planes receive the first priority, followed by passenger flights, and only at the end cargo planes. This waiting creates a 'domino effect': a plane that takes off late, lands late at its next destination, and thus its next takeoff is also delayed. These chain delays are rolled directly onto the Israeli consumer, who continues to wait for his package for long weeks.