Near East Air Transport

Near East Air Transport
Photo of Iraqi migrants deplaning a Near East DC-4 aircraft in Tel Aviv in 1951
Iraqi arrivals, DC-4 Tel Aviv April 1951
FoundedJune 1949: Near East Air Transport, Inc. incorporated in Delaware
Commenced operations
August 7, 1949 (1949-08-07)
Ceased operations
November 1951 (1951-11)
Operating bases
Tel Aviv
Nicosia
Asmara
Parent companyAlaska Airlines
El Al
HeadquartersRome[1]
Key peopleRobert F. Maguire, Jr.
Milton Lang
FounderJames A. Wooten
Flying Tiger Line[2] DC-4 May 1950 Aden
Note "Near East Air" over the door. NC63396 was a Twentieth Century Air Lines[3] DC-4, May 1950 Aden Airport
Operation Magic Carpet flight, May 1950

Near East Air Transport (NEAT) was a briefly prominent partially US airline that played a key role in two major operations transporting migrants to Israel in the early years of that state. The name covered two US corporations with overlapping management and ownership:

  • Near East Air Transport, Inc. (NEATI) was a US airline that in August 1949 assumed the Middle East operation of Alaska Airlines flying Yemenite Jews to Israel (Operation Magic Carpet), after the US government forced Alaska out for severe safety and regulatory violations.
  • Near East Air Transport, overseas Inc. (NEATO) was a front formed to fly Iraqi Jews to Israel 1950–1951 (Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, known at the time as Operation Ali Baba). Nominally US, NEATO was controlled by Israeli carrier El Al and the state of Israel. Some Israeli agents used NEAT cover for this operation. NEAT also served to control the rate of Iraqi migration.

NEAT deployed both its own aircraft and those contracted to it and during its brief existence flew at least 150,000 people to Israel, mostly from Aden, Baghdad and Basra, but also other regional cities such as Djibouti, Asmara, Tehran, Bahrain and further afield. The carrier attracted attention for the airlifts, sometimes misidentified as Near East Airlines,[4] Near East Airways[5] or Near East Transport.[6]

NEAT was a significant source of demand for US carriers; for instance, it provided the largest non-military contract for US cargo carrier Flying Tiger Line to that time. Israeli aircraft also flew for NEAT, including as a Cuban airline, Intercontinental Aerea de Cuba, established for the purpose. NEAT further took an equity stake and management role in another Latin American carrier, Aerovias Venezuela Europa, which also flew charters to Israel.

History

Alaska Airlines in the Middle East

Israel's 1948 foundation created business for US airlines. Carriers like Alaska Airlines, Flying Tiger, Trans Caribbean and Transocean flew immigrant charters.[7][8] Atlantic Northern Airlines carried arms.[9] For Alaska Airlines, charters sidestepped restrictions of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that at the time provided tight economic regulation of most US commercial aviation. The CAB limited Alaska Airlines scheduled service to specific routes within the Territory of Alaska; charters let the airline grow outside Alaska.[10][11] In 1948, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) relief agency contracted with Alaska Airlines to move Yemenite Jews from Aden to Israel.[12] At that time, thousands of Jews from the Kingdom of Yemen (later known as North Yemen) subsisted south of the Kingdom at a refugee camp outside Aden in British-controlled Aden Colony by the mouth of the Red Sea[13] (the colony together with adjacent British-controlled Aden Protectorate later became South Yemen; South and North Yemen united in 1990 to become today's Yemen). Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli immigrants and Israel had, at the time, no Red Sea port, hence the need for an airlift.[14][15]

The Aden operation was autonomous from the start. Alaska Airlines owner Raymond Marshall required Alaska president James A. Wooten to personally lease the necessary resources from the airline.[16] Wooten incorporated NEATI in Delaware June 1949[17] with pilot Robert F. Maguire, Jr. as president, but kept it initially secret.[18] The JDC saw Maguire (who Israeli leader David Ben Gurion reportedly called an Irish Moses)[19] as the person most responsible for making the airlift a success.[20] Conditions were challenging.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli war ended in 1949 armistices, but peace agreements did not follow.[21] Thus, for the duration of the operation, the eight+ hour flight from Aden to Israel required flying over the Red Sea and narrow Gulf of Aqaba, with hostile powers on either side. Mountain ranges lined the Red Sea, some as high as 12,000 ft, higher than the cruising altitude of the unpressurized aircraft.[22] Fuel was initially difficult to obtain in Israel, so flights had to refuel in Cyprus. The British in Aden separately refused to sell fuel. Southbound flights thus stopped in Asmara, Eritrea (then British administered) to load fuel drums for Aden, to self-supply return Tel Aviv flights. Asmara was Alaska's main base;[23] it destroyed a Curtiss C-46 there in January 1949.[24][25] Alaska loaded over 100 Yemenites (of slight stature, often malnourished and with many children) per flight on wooden benches, over double the usual capacity of a Douglas DC-4/C-54. Adult passenger weight averaged about 80 lbs.[26] Passengers relieved themselves in a sandbox at the back of the aircraft; aircraft were sprayed out after each flight.[27] Flights did not fly on the Jewish sabbath.[28]

Transfer to NEATI

Alaska's involvement formally ended August 1949 when the CAB and its operational counterpart, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA, forerunner to the Federal Aviation Administration) cracked down. The airline offered de-facto scheduled service (via frequent charters) between Alaska and the Lower 48, violating CAB rules and a prior court case.[10] Alaska did not have the required CAA authority for offshore operations. It also had many safety violations. Fines and operating restrictions were severe. Wooten was also personally fined.[29] The CAA/CAB issued the ruling on August 4 with the clamp-down effective August 8.[30] NEAT officially assumed Alaska's duties August 7, 1949.[31] Wooten's position with the CAA/CAB and Alaska Airlines was difficult; he claimed President Truman interceded with the government[32] and on October 14 left Alaska to become chair of NEAT.[33]

Although NEATI was initially just the continuation of an Alaska operation (some NEAT aircraft at first just used a simple variation of the Alaska livery (see External links for an example)), later in 1949 Alaska denied any connection to NEAT.[34]

Operation Magic Carpet

The first phase of Magic Carpet, December 16, 1948, to March 1949, moved over 5,000 people. There was a lull and the Aden camp closed.[35] But as word spread that the way was open to Israel, Yemenite Jews started walking to Aden. A new camp opened in July and was soon overwhelmed; population exceeded 13,000 by September.[36] The JDC struggled to find sufficient lift. By September the Israeli military had contributed two aircraft to help clear the peak.[37] Ultimately as many as 11 aircraft were employed, with Trans Caribbean, Seaboard and Western and Flying Tiger Line participating along with British carrier Fairflight.[38] The peak month of the airlift was October 1949, when almost 11,500 were transported. Flights continued in 1950 at lower tempo through September 24.[39] Contracting carriers used their own crews.[22][40] NEAT was a major operation for Flying Tiger Line (FTL) which contributed four aircraft, its biggest non-military contract to that point. FTL founder and president Robert Prescott personally oversaw FTL's NEAT operation;[41] some reports even identified him as head of NEAT.[42]

Magic Carpet flew over 47,000 Yemenite Jews, encompassed flights from Asmara (200) and Djibouti (200) to Israel and also airlifted culturally distinct (from Yemenites) Jews from Aden itself (over 1,700) for a total of over 49,000 people. NEAT accounted for at least 38,000 (counting just September 1949 through September 1950).[43]

Iraqi arrivals Lod Airport, April 1951. Note "Contracted to NEAT" above the door
Same aircraft as prior photo; N49288 was a DC-4 registered to Transocean[44]

Operation Ezra and Nehemiah

El Al was not operational when Operation Magic Carpet launched but it was by 1950.[45] NEATO was a Wooten/El Al venture, formed for the purposes of the Iraqi operation, distinct from NEATI[46] and incorporated in Delaware February 1950,[47] (NEATO was not an airline; US law strictly limited foreign ownership of a US airline[48] and, as discussed below, El Al came to own all of NEATO). NEATI gave El Al right of first refusal on all Jewish migration business, whether from the Israeli government or Zionist or Jewish organizations.[49] Unlike in British-controlled Aden, Israel could only operate in Iraq under cover,[50] which it did through Mossad LeAliyah Bet (MAB), a clandestine agency created to enable Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine when such immigration was illegal.[51] MAB, disbanded in 1952,[52] should not be confused with today's Mossad. In May 1950, two MAB agents, one also a NEAT employee, the other posing as one, along with (fully aware) Wooten, negotiated a year-long agreement with Iraq for the US company to fly Iraqi Jews to Israel,[53] known as Operation Ali Baba at the time.[54][55]

Flights started May 19, 1950[56] with a stop in Nicosia, Cyprus, to meet an Iraqi condition that flights fly to a neutral country.[57] As in Aden, NEAT faced unexpected overwhelming demand. Israeli ministers, struggling with the immigrants they already had, initially blocked an increase in NEAT capacity, despite the poor condition of refugees in Iraq. In January 1951 Ben Gurion ordered a substantial increase to clear the backlog.[58] The fleet expanded (see next paragraph) and aircraft more productive because (1) in March, Iraq allowed direct flights, substantially reducing trip time[59] and (2) rabbis ruled NEAT could operate on the sabbath, so long as aircraft did not arrive in Israel during that time.[58] Transocean also contributed an aircraft and crew (see photo).[60][61] In March, NEAT flew over 13,000 migrants, up from fewer than 4,000 in December. In April, the number was over 21,000. NEAT obtained an extension of the program beyond its original one-year term to clear the backlog. By the time the Jewish Agency announced an end to the program on August 5, NEAT had flown over 112,000 people from Baghdad and Basra to Israel.[62]

Intercontinental Aerea de Cuba

At least three DC-4s of the aircraft added to Operation Ezra and Nehemiah in early 1951 had Cuban registration.[63] A Cuban businessman, Narciso V. Roselló Otero, established an airline, Intercontinental Aerea de Cuba, with a branch in Nicosia. Israeli aircraft were given Cuban registration and Cuban pilots flew some such aircraft for NEAT, which also included C-46s (see nearby photo of a Cuban-registered NEAT C-46).[64] British authorities in Sharjah (then a UK protectorate) noted the Cuban registration of a NEAT aircraft transiting that Emirate from Hong Kong.[65] In later years the strategem was openly acknowledged.[66]

Aerovias Venezuela Europa

In 1950, NEAT and Flying Tiger each sold a DC-4 to a Venezuelan carrier, Aerovias Venezuela Europa (AVE) "on an installment plan." AVE was the international division of Compania Aerea Viajes Expresos de Venezuela (CAVE).[67][68] NEAT and Flying Tiger shared a 45% stake in AVE. Wooten was also an AVE executive[69] and chair of the board.[70] In 1950 AVE offered scheduled service from Caracas to Rome and Paris (via Bermuda, the Azores, Portugal and Spain),[67] and also flew pilgrimage charters to Tel Aviv from Europe.[71] (External links has a photo of an AVE DC-4 at Tel Aviv). By 1951 the arrangement had come to an end.[72]

Cuban registration (on wing) CU-T449 indicate this NEAT C-46 (at Umm Rashrash 1950) was an Intercontinental Aerea de Cuba aircraft. CU-T449 appears in C-46 ownership records[73]

Other activity

A former NEAT flight attendant was based in Nicosia and flew to 31 other countries.[74] There was other Israel migration business, including from Bahrain, Bombay and as previously mentioned, Hong Kong (extracting Jewish refugees from the Chinese revolution).[28] In late 1951 NEAT was flying 2000 to 3000 people per month to Israel from Tehran.[4]

There was also non-refugee business. In 1950, NEAT carried pilgrims traveling from Tehran to Mecca.[75] In 1950, Wooten announced a NEAT program transporting Christian pilgrims from Europe to Israel.[76][77] As noted above, NEAT's Venezuelan affiliate, AVE, appears to have played a role in that program.

End

By early 1951, El Al took Wooten out of his NEATO stake completely.[78] In the same timeframe, Milton Lang was named NEAT president in 1951;[79] he would later transition to being an El Al executive.[80] In September, Wooten became the new head of the scheduled American cargo airline U. S. Airlines.[81] NEAT flew its last migrant mission in November and by January 1952, all staff were on unpaid leave.[82] Migration to Israel dropped sharply after 1951.[83]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "James A. Wooten, Director of '49 Airlift of Yemeni Jews". New York Times: B8. June 3, 1985. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 13, 2026.
  2. ↑ "USAF Serial Number Search Results: Douglas C-54". Aircraft Serial Number Search. MSN 18354. Retrieved July 25, 2026.
  3. ↑ "USAF Serial Number Search Results: Douglas C-54". Aircraft Serial Number Search. MSN 10486. Retrieved July 25, 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Near East Airlines Completes Airlift". Aviation Week. 55 (21): 86. November 19, 1951. ISSN 0005-2175.
  5. ↑ "Exodus from Kurdistan". Jerusalem Post. XXVI (7311): 5. July 21, 1950. ISSN 0792-822X.
  6. ↑ "Air Tramps". Aviation Week. 50 (10): 7. March 7, 1949. ISSN 0005-2175.
  7. ↑ "Nonsked Expands Maintenance Facility". Aviation Week. 51 (26): 37. December 26, 1949. ISSN 0005-2175.
  8. ↑ 1951 Annual Report (Report). Flying Tiger Line. October 2, 1951. pp. 18–19.
  9. ↑ Atlantic Northern Airlines, Inc. v. Schwimmer, 12 N.J. 293 (1953).
  10. 1 2 Pacific Northern Airlines v. Alaska Airlines, 80 F. Supp. 592 (D. Alaska 1948).
  11. ↑ "Alaska Airlines Stresses Cargo". Aviation Week. 48 (17): 42. April 26, 1948. ISSN 0005-2175.
  12. ↑ Schechtman 1961, p. 52.
  13. ↑ Schechtman, Joseph B. (July 1952). "The Repatriation of Yemenite Jewry". Jewish Social Studies. 14 (3): 214–215.
  14. ↑ Resner, Lawrence (1951). Eternal Stranger. Garden City (NY): Doubleday. p. 191. LCCN 51013141.
  15. ↑ "Israel Developing Port Link to Africa, Far East". San Francisco Examiner. CLXXXXIV (46): 31. February 15, 1951. ISSN 2574-593X.
  16. ↑ Satterfield, Archie (1981). The Alaska Airlines Story. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Publishing. pp. 99–100. ISBN 0882401653.
  17. ↑ Delaware Corporations (Report). Secretary of State, Delaware. June 1949. hdl:2027/uc1.b3024609.
  18. ↑ Metzger 2017, Chapter 7.
  19. ↑ "Jews Discover an Unsung Hero". Los Angeles Times. CXXIII (199): B2. June 19, 2004. ISSN 0458-3035.
  20. ↑ Viteles, Harry (March 3, 1949). "Emigration from Aden". Letter to AJDC - Paris. Geneva Collection 1945–1954: JDC Archives. Item 740955. Retrieved July 21, 2026.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  21. ↑ Reich, Bernard (December 1991). "Themes in the History of the State of Israel". American Historical Review. 96 (5): 1467. doi:10.2307/2165282.
  22. 1 2 Martin, Edward Trueblood (1973). "An American Pilot". In Eisenberg, Azriel; Goodman, Hannah Grad; Kass, Alvin (eds.). Eyewitnesses to Jewish History. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations. pp. 398–403. LCCN 72001898.
  23. ↑ Satterfield 1981, p. 104.
  24. ↑ Resume of U.S. Air Carrier Accidents (Calendar Year 1949) (Report). Civil Aeronautics Board. May 1950. p. 25. hdl:2027/mdp.39015009824494.
  25. ↑ Davis, John M.; Martin, Harold G.; Whittle, John A. (1978). The Curtiss C-46 Commando. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p. 115. ISBN 0-85130-065-0. serial 22474.
  26. ↑ Schechtman 1961, p. 56.
  27. ↑ Metzger, Darragh (2017). "Chapter Nine". Alaska Over Israel (e-book). Lynnwood (WA): TFA Press. ISBN 9781981854332.
  28. 1 2 Resner 1951, p. 195.
  29. ↑ "Alaska Fined". Aviation Week. 51 (7): 55. August 15, 1949. ISSN 0005-2175.
  30. ↑ "Alaska Airlines Draws Penalty". Oregonian. LXXXIX (27, 685): 7. August 5, 1949. ISSN 8750-1317.
  31. ↑ Metzger 2017, Chapter Fifteen.
  32. ↑ Metzger 2017, Chapter Seventeen.
  33. ↑ "Alaska Airlines, Inc.—President Resigns". Commercial and Financial Chronicle. 170 (4849): 1. October 24, 1949. ISSN 0010-2903.
  34. ↑ "Former Alaskans Smuggle 600 Jews Nightly To Israel". Nome Nugget. LI (139): 1. ISSN 0745-9106.
  35. ↑ Schechtman 1961, pp. 56–57.
  36. ↑ Schechtman 1961, pp. 62–65.
  37. ↑ Leavitt, Moses A. (September 20, 1949). Exhibit No. 1, Report of the Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary to the Executive Committee Meeting (Report). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Item 954030. Retrieved July 25, 2026 – via JDC Archives, 1945–1954 New York Collection.
  38. ↑ Schechtman, Joseph B. (1961). On Wings of Eagles. New York: T. Yoseloff. p. 53. LCCN 61006156.
  39. ↑ Schechtman 1961, pp. 70–71.
  40. ↑ "Pilot Martin Helped Fulfill Prophecy". Ridgefield Press (CT). 98 (7): 1. February 15, 1973. ISSN 1091-2339.
  41. ↑ "West Coast Talk". American Aviation. 17 (7): 41. August 31, 1953. ISSN 0096-4913.
  42. ↑ "Ali Baba Fliers Ferry Iraqi Jews to Israel". Atlanta Constitution. LXXXII (341): 5. May 22, 1950. ISSN 2473-1609.
  43. ↑ Schechtman 1961, pp. 70–72.
  44. ↑ "Aircraft Operated by Transocean Air Lines". History of Transocean Air Lines. Retrieved July 25, 2026.
  45. ↑ "Israeli Airline Begins Operations". Jewish Chronicle (4189): 20. August 5, 1949. ISSN 0021-633X.
  46. ↑ Hillel, Shlomo (1987). Operation Babylon. New York: Doubleday. p. 233. ISBN 0385235976.
  47. ↑ Delaware Corporations (Report). Secretary of State, Delaware. February 1950. hdl:2027/uc1.$b779016.
  48. ↑ Patel, Bimal (2008). "A Flight Plan Towards Financial Stability – The History and Future of Foreign Ownership Restrictions in the United States Aviation Industry". Journal of Air Law and Commerce. 73 (3): 489. ISSN 0021-8642.
  49. ↑ "NEAT and El Al Sign Near East Air-Services Contract". Foreign Commerce Weekly. XXXVIII (10): 40. March 6, 1950. hdl:2027/uiug.30112077135256. ISSN 0097-3041.
  50. ↑ Hillel 1987, p. 12.
  51. ↑ Gat 1997, Preface, Chapter 2§1.
  52. ↑ "Why the Mossad must remain an intelligence service for all Jews". Haaretz. November 4, 2010. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Two units were designated as the successors to the Mossad le'Aliyah Bet, which was disbanded in 1952. The more secret of the two was the Mossad's Bitzur unit, tasked with overseeing the immigration of Jews from countries where their lives were in danger as well as protecting Jewish communities in the diaspora. The other, Nativ, encouraged immigration from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and after the fall of the iron curtain was charged with issuing immigration visas, establishing cultural centers and keeping track of any manifestations of anti-semitism
  53. ↑ Hillel 1987, pp. 240–248.
  54. ↑ Black, Edwin (May 31, 2016). "The expulsion that backfired: when Iraq kicked out its Jews". Times of Israel.
  55. ↑ "Iraqis Fix Deadline for Jewish Exodus". New York Times: 4. January 20, 1951.
  56. ↑ Gat 1997, Chapter 6§3.
  57. ↑ Schechtman 1961, p. 113.
  58. 1 2 Gat 1997, Chapter 7§3.
  59. ↑ Schechtman 1961, p. 117.
  60. ↑ "Farnham Writes From Israel". Dawson County Herald (Lexington, Nebraska). 52 (15): 16. September 13, 1951.
  61. ↑ Thruelsen, Richard (1953). Transocean: The Story of an Unusual Airline. Henry Holt. p. 184. LCCN 53009593.
  62. ↑ Schechtman 1961, pp. 115–118.
  63. ↑ "Speeding Transfer of Iraqi Jews". Jewish Chronicle (4267): 24. February 2, 1951. ISSN 0021-633X.
  64. ↑ "Pilotos cubanos en la Tierra Santa". Juventud Rebelde. October 19, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2026 – via Cubainformación.
  65. ↑ al Qasimi, Sultan. Tale of a City, Part II. Sharjah: al Qasimi. pp. 150–155. ISBN 978-9948-24-352-6.
  66. ↑ "Aviation". Time. 91 (22): 66. May 31, 1968. ISSN 0040-781X.
  67. 1 2 "Horarios E Itinerarios" (PDF). timetableimages.com. Aerovias Venezuela Europa. May 1950. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  68. ↑ "Civil Aviation in Venezuela, January–June 1950". Foreign Commerce Weekly. XL (13): 34. September 25, 1950. hdl:2027/uc1.31210017543297. ISSN 0097-3041.
  69. ↑ Wager, Walter H. (1951). "International Airline Collaboration in Traffic Pools, Rate-Fixing and Joint Management Agreements - Part II". Journal of Air Law and Commerce. 18 (3): 300. ISSN 0021-8642.
  70. ↑ Who's Who in America 1956–1957: Vol 29. Chicago: Marquis. 1956. p. 2844.
  71. ↑ "Pilgrims Thrilled by First Glimpse of Holy Land". Palestine Post. XXVI (7243): 3. February 19, 1950. ISSN 0792-822X – via National Library of Israel.
  72. ↑ United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States Overseas Airlines, et al v. Compania Aerea Viajes Expresos de Venezuela, et al, Appendix to Appellants' Brief (246 F.2d 951 (2d Cir. 1957)) (Report). 1957. p. 26.
  73. ↑ Davis 1978, p. 97, Serial 33271.
  74. ↑ "European Air Hostess Faces Unique Problems, Herrin Woman Says". Southern Illinoisan. 66 (235): 5. October 5, 1958. ISSN 0038-4062.
  75. ↑ Resner 1951, p. 192.
  76. ↑ "Holy Year Pilgrims for Israel". Morning Journal (Rockhampton, Queensland) (27, 684): 3. March 23, 1950.
  77. ↑ "Pilgrimages in February". Christian News from Israel (5): 7. January–February 1950.
  78. ↑ Gat, Moshe (1997). "Chapter 7§3". The Jewish Exodus from Iraq 1948–1951 (e-book). London: Frank Cass. ISBN 071464689X.
  79. ↑ "Visitor of Underwoods from Tel Aviv, Israel". Mountain View (OK) News. XIII (19): 1. March 15, 1951.
  80. ↑ "A Miracle that Wasn't—El Al". Interavia. IX (1): 42. ISSN 0020-5168.
  81. ↑ "Personal News". Traffic World. 88 (12): 70. September 22, 1951. ISSN 0041-073X.
  82. ↑ "Israel Immigrants' Airlift Suspended". Sydney Jewish News. XIII (18): 1. January 25, 1952. ISSN 1325-5967.
  83. ↑ Hacohen, Dvora (2003). "Aliyah to Israel by country of origin and year of Aliyah, 14 May 1948-31 December 1953". Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2969-6.
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