Transportation and Aviation

Overview

The Transportation and Aviation Departments at Arnon, Tadmor-Levy are among the leading and most experienced in Israel, consistently ranking at the top of both local and international rating tables. Our teams have extensive experience in leading major transportation projects in Israel and representing large aviation, transportation, and tourism companies in the market. Our comprehensive experience includes matters related to privatization, tenders, handling of complex regulatory issues, and representation across all relevant legal forums.

Our clients benefit from the firm’s various departments, each considered a leader in its field in Israel, providing a legal framework for their needs in administrative law, tender law, litigation, banking and project finance, competition law, planning and construction, local authorities, environmental quality, taxation, labor law, and more.

The firm has unique knowledge and experience in working with foreign clients seeking to integrate into commercial activities in the State of Israel, and we have a significant list of foreign clients in the Israeli market, across various sectors.

We also have extensive knowledge and experience of working with public authorities and the public sector, including obtaining licenses, various approval requests from authorities for company activities, and various regulatory issues, including drafting proposals for legislation and subordinate legislation.

In addition, the firm has knowledge and experience in representing public authorities and the public sector, as well as funding bodies (banks and institutional entities).

Transportation

The firm is a leader in the field of tenders, and has extensive experience in a wide range of transportation projects, usually executed through various types of public tenders. In recent years, we have been involved in major transportation tenders, and tenders for transportation infrastructure, such as railways and roads, including light rail (some using the BOT/PFI models). In the area of large public tenders, we have experience representing all parties, from the government offices issuing tenders, to the competing private companies and groups, to the banks financing the projects. The firm specializes in all stages of the tender process – from preparing the tender by the government and early stages of competition, to supporting the execution of the final contract.

Among the tenders the firm has participated in are: the Jerusalem Light Rail (Red, Green, and Blue Lines) and Tel Aviv Light Rail (Red, Green, and Purple Lines), the Haifa Metronit project, numerous tenders for public transportation bus licenses (privatization), automatic electronic enforcement projects, and other projects related to public transportation services. Currently, the firm is assisting in preparing various tenders to select the managers of the planned Tel Aviv metro project.

Aviation

The firm has rich experience in representing prominent Israeli aviation and tourism companies in litigation proceedings, including class actions, concerning various claims of violations of Israeli law, foreign law, and international conventions.

The firm has represented clients in – and won – some of the most prominent and significant cases in the field, some of which have shaped the unique aviation and consumer laws in this area. These cases were handled by a dedicated, organic litigation team composed of partners and attorneys specializing in class actions in general, and in the aviation field in particular.

Additionally, the firm provides ongoing support to aviation and tourism companies, offering professional, fast, and comprehensive responses to a range of issues. Our aviation team also provides opinions to foreign companies operating or seeking to operate in Israel, detailing the obligations imposed on them by law, according to the services they offer, and addressing aspects of the applicability of law and jurisdiction (private international law) and the relationship between foreign law and Israeli law.

We also advise on lease agreements and drafting of transportation terms and conditions, and we support companies in writing compliance programs and in regulatory consulting.

The firm’s Competition/Antitrust Department has unique knowledge of competition regulation in the aviation industry, and the position papers and analyses it has submitted have influenced the regulation framework in this field over the years. The department has been involved in all the code share agreements approved to date by the Israel Competition Authority, and regularly advises leading Israeli airline and foreign companies on matters such as international airline mergers, internal enforcement proceedings, and other commercial arrangements.

The firm also has extensive experience accumulated over many years of representing the Airports Authority, as well as representing and advising an inter-ministerial tender committee appointed to promote a tender for the establishment of a complementary airport, in PPP partnership with the private sector.

What the team is known for, Chambers Global | 2024
“Arnon, Tadmor-Levy is an esteemed firm with a respected transportation team which includes major international airline companies among its clients. It represents clients in a wide range of mandates ranging from regulatory support and commercial and competition issues to class actions and other contentious matters.”

“Arnon, Tadmor-Levy has an excellent aviation team.”

“The team is very responsive, service-oriented, and organized to provide a simple interface.”

Recognition