El Al announced that it has canceled all flights to Cyprus due to minimal demand, a Channel 12 News report said.
Although Cyprus has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus, international travel in general has significantly declined due to fear of the coronavirus.
On Monday, El Al was forced to cancel several flights due to the limited number of expected passengers on the plane.
Some of the flights that were canceled were to destinations that aren’t considered high-risk at all – London, Vienna, Frankfurt and Budapest. “The passengers are simply not arriving. There’s no point in flying,” an El Al source said.
El Al also froze five training courses for 60 pilots and about 100 flight attendants as the company prepares a plan to lay off about 1,000 of its 6,000 employees.
El Al’s announcement is the latest in a series of statements since the outbreak of the coronavirus about cancellations and flight delays as well as the recently announced layoff plan.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
One Response
Ha Ha, what a way to run a so-called International airline. There is no health scare in Cyprus and funnily enough, the good value low-cost airline Ryanair is running almost full flights – I know I was on two of them to and from Cyprus this week. Ryanair offers good prices and has an excellent timekeeping record. I guess El Al management is just using the health scare as a way of squeezing the Israeli Treasury for more funds to prop up its lousy airline. Note to the new Israeli Government – let El Al drown.