Israeli company buys major stake in Tus airways

Israel’s Global Knafaim said on Thursday it bought a 49.9% stake in the small Cypriot airline Tus Airways with a $5 million investment. Global Knafaim is a unit of Knafaim Holdings, which lost a controlling stake in Israel’s flag carrier El Al last year when the airline applied for a government bailout. Tus Airways has two Airbus A320 aircraft and will begin flying in Europe this summer and is considering buying Airbus A330 planes suitable for longer flights, Global Knafaim said.

Tus airways 2nd A320 arriving in a few weeks and will be registered as 5B-DDL (ex Air Malta 9H-AEN)

Under the terms of the LOI, TUS may also lease two A330 aircraft from Global Knafaim Leasing, the contract said, and the Israeli lessor will provide the Cypriot carrier with “aviation and consulting” services. Global Knafaim Leasing’s portfolio includes two A330-200s, msn 322 and 1293, and two A330-300s, msn 357 and 1157.