It expanded its operations to begin international charter flights in 1999, building up a route network that now covers much of Europe, as well as regularly flying to other destinations in Asia, Africa, and North America.

[4] The airline expanded operations across the Atlantic Ocean when regular charter service to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport was started in June 2004.

[citation needed] Permission was granted to the airline to convert this to regular scheduled service by the Israeli government and the FAA on May 1, 2006.

[6] After Israir was granted permission to operate scheduled service on the lucrative New York-Tel Aviv route, it also entered talks with both Boeing and Airbus regarding the acquisition of new aircraft to its fleet and replacement of its existing jets.

[8] In April 2008, the airline received an Airbus A330 for its New York flights to replace the Boeing 767 aircraft it had previously been wet-leasing.

[12] In early 2008, when restrictions were lifted on Israeli airlines' destinations, Israir applied for designated carrier status on routes from Israel to London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Amsterdam, Rome, Budapest, Las Vegas, and Miami – some of which were destinations served by the airline as charter routes back then.