Despite issuing a carefully worded statement on Friday pledging to stop delivering munitions to Israel, Dublin-based ASL used a subsidiary company – which it wholly owns – to transport dozens of the packages to the Israel Defense Forces over the weekend.
CEO John Rawl promised ASL Aviations Holdings staff at the group’s north Dublin office – recently the site of regular protests – on Friday that “ASL Airlines Ireland” would no longer carry International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) goods on its “Middle East operations”.
The Ditch can reveal that ASL Airlines France – an ASL Airlines Ireland sister company also owned by ASL Aviation Holdings – is now delivering the munitions packages from Paris to Tel Aviv.
'A wholly owned subsidiary of Swords-based ASL Aviation Holdings DAC'
The Ditch first reported more than a month ago that FedEx flights from Memphis to Cologne illegally carried munitions of war to Israel through Irish sovereign airspace.
The shipments – mainly F-35 combat jet parts – were previously flagged as International Traffic in Arms Regulations goods, with ITAR referring to goods on the US Munitions List.
FedEx earlier this month deleted the ITAR designation applied to these shipments from its online tracking system.
Dublin company ASL Airlines Ireland transported these munitions on behalf of FedEx from Cologne to Tel Aviv using an Irish-registered plane.
On Friday The Ditch reported that ASL told staff it would no longer carry ITAR packages – containing parts for the F-35 fighter jets Israel uses to bomb Gaza – on its Middle East flights after multiple protests outside its offices in Swords.
Over the weekend however The Ditch identified 37 munitions packages – some weighing more than 50 kilogrammes – being transported to Nevatim air base in Israel that had started their journey on FedEx flights from Memphis to Cologne last week.
Initially it appeared these packages were being returned to the US after they were flown from Cologne to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris instead of Tel Aviv – in line with ASL Airlines Ireland’s promise it would no longer transport such goods to Israel.
All 37 packages identified by The Ditch however were transported from Paris to Tel Aviv on Saturday and Sunday on two early morning flights operated by ASL Airlines France. This is a wholly owned subsidiary of Swords-based ASL Aviation Holdings DAC.
ASL Aviation Holdings has been contacted for comment.
