Neos Air (NO, Milan Malpensa) began weekly scheduled fifth-freedom charters between Tel Aviv Ben Gurion and Colombo International on September 21, 2023. It is the only direct service connecting Israel and Sri Lanka.
The flights are operated on behalf of Classic Air, an Israeli charter broker and a sister company of Electra Airways (3E, Sofia). The inaugural rotation was operated with a B737-8, although Neos has scheduled future operations with a B737-800.
Neos Air operates an extensive scheduled network out of Tel Aviv, although until now it had focused on servicing various destinations in the European Union. Due to traffic rights restrictions, it serves its other long-haul destinations in Asia from points in Italy (Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino) exclusively, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.