The approval is based on the new aviation agreement signed between Israel to Germany. AL Cargo Airlines was approved to fly between Tel Aviv Frankfurtand Cologne

The joint operation will deploy eight TEU 4,200 container vessels, five from the Grand Alliance and three from Zim, and will take effect from early next month

Turkey was the second largest source of incoming containers with TEU 51,075 and TEU 11,169 exported

The tourism industry contributed some 40 billion shekels ($10.4 billion) and 160,000 jobs to Israel's economy

Loop ABX will also call Damietta, enabling OOCL to offer service on a bi-weekly basis, thereby doubling the capacity

The Asia Black Sea Express service (ABX) will call at the Egyptian port of Damietta on bi-weekly frequency which will allow doubling the capacity from the Far East to Israel

The new service optimises the existing networks and deploys 4 vessels of each 2.200 TEU, the service will begin January 2009

Potatoes will go to the UK, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Greece, Belgium and Poland