The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) suspended El Al’s cargo flights due to the airline’s steep debt of NIS 60 million ($17.3 m.) to the authority.
Cargo flights have been virtually the only source of income for Israel’s beleaguered national airline since the coronavirus pandemic has brought international travel to a screeching halt.
This latest setback comes as El Al seeks a $400 million bailout from the Israeli government, which would be conditional on considerable company reforms. El Al and the finance ministry have yet to reach an agreement after months of negotiations. If no agreement can be reached, it means the death of the airline.
About 6,000 El Al employees are on unpaid leave until June 30. El Al announced in May that it was extending its halt on flights to and from Israel until June 20.
El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in mid-May warning him that he would bear the “ultimate responsibility” if El Al collapses.
In the letter, Usishkin claimed that the finance ministry’s bailout plan demands impossible conditions and would mean the liquidation of El Al.
“We received a document in which the finance ministry brought up additional demands that cannot be implemented, the only purpose of which is to lead to El Al’s liquidation,” Usishkin wrote. “As prime minister, you bear the ultimate responsibility for that. After 72 years, El Al will end its journey on your watch.”
The finance ministry’s plan would require El Al to implement drastic measures to cut costs as well as significant layoffs of about a third of its employees- about 2,000 workers. The plan would have to be approved by El Al’s workers’ union.
Ushishkin warned in his letter that El Al’s collapse would damage Israel’s national security by eliminating its independence in the aviation industry, harm the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Israelis who earn income from El Al – directly and indirectly – and cause the loss of NIS 2.5b. ($710m.) in annual GDP.
“As you certainly know, El Al is in a situation of unprecedented difficulty due to no fault of its own,” Usishkin wrote. “The finance ministry’s claims that El Al’s difficulties and need for a loan are due to its pre-crisis management are lacking foundation and have no grip on reality.”
Usishkin requested that Netanyahu instruct the finance ministry to amend its proposal for a bailout loan, accusing the ministry of “refusing to hook up El Al to a ventilator as has been done in most countries around the world.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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This is the same airline that slandered chareidi passengers on a flight that left them stranded in Greece on Shabbos by lying to them about getting back to Israel before Shabbos and then falsely blamed them for creating disturbances on the plane. This is the same airline that flew to NY during the major blizzard in 2010 knowing full well that all the local airports in the NY area announced that they would be closed at the scheduled arrival time. They lied to the passengers, of which I was one, and said that we would land at JFK. They did not land at JFK. They landed in Toronto and made all passengers disembark with their luggage and leave the airport, We were all stuck there for 24 hours and at 2AM the next morning were forced to go back to the airport to board. We landed in NY at 4AM and were kept on the plane until 6AM. We then had to find our way home in a city that was paralyzed in 3 feet of snow. That’s when I decided never again, after having flown to Israel for 30 years only on El Al. It is hard to feel for them.