Bypassing closed skies: First-of-its-kind solution keeps e-commerce shipments flowing to Israel

Due to continued restrictions and the suspensions of direct flights by many airlines from the Far East, hundreds of thousands of packages from global shopping platforms have been left stranded across Asia—primarily in China.

Now, a first-of-its-kind initiative offers workaround. E-Cargo Logistics, part of the Cargo Amerford Group, has launched an alternative transport route combining air and land shipping, enabling deliveries to reach Israel even without direct flights. The solution was made possible with special emergency authorization granted by Israeli customs authorities.

Under the new model, goods are flown from the Far East to Dubai, then transferred to trucks that travel approximately 2,600 kilometers over four days through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, entering Israel via the Jordan River crossing. Once in Israel, the shipments are transferred to local trucks and transported to Ben Gurion Airport for expedited customs clearance and final distribution to customers.

The initiative provides a practical alternative traditional air freight, which has been severely impacted both by flight cancellations and soaring transportation costs, factors that have made shipping economically unfeasible and led to a significant backlog of goods in the Far East.

This marks the first time that Israeli customs has approved the use of a hybrid logistics route—combining partial air transport with regional overland delivery—for large-scale e-commerce shipments.

The first truck under the new system arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Friday and the company estimates that tens of thousands of packages will reach Israel in the coming weeks through this new model.

Eitan Varman, CEO of E-Cargo, said, “This is the first time such an innovative solution has been successfully implemented for e-commerce shipments. The model will continue to operate as long as the emergency situation persists and direct flights to Israel have not resumed. We would also like to thank the Israeli Customs Authority and the cargo terminal teams for their support and cooperation in enabling efficient and cost-effective delivery of online commerce shipments to customers in Israel.”