El Al General-Manager Chaim Romano on Monday night paid a visit to Maran Rav Elyashiv Shlita, explaining he was summoned to the Gadol HaDor and for him, “it was an honor to respond”.
 
While Romano was somewhat vague as to the context of the discussion, which he said was relatively brief, he did state the current economic realities were discussed as well as some of El Al’s efforts towards meeting the needs of the chareidi community, citing the shmitah l’chumra lounge in the airport as an example.
 
Romano stressed El Al’s commitment to Shmiras Shabbos and the chareidi community, and when asked about mehadrin flights, stated El Al is happy to accommodate but the move rests in the hands of chareidi travel agents, who must reserve the planes. He explained that if there is an adequate number of bookings and requests for any flight, the airline will accommodate as it does for flights to Uman and other charter services.

The senior airline official added that since El Al committed to adhere to Shabbos, the number of chareidim flying has increased, but “to my sorrow” he added, many have still not made the move.
 
He added that when the tragedy struck Mumbai, El Al also did whatever it could to assist in bringing Moishele’s caretaker, Sandra, to Eretz Yisrael, adding the airline paid for her flight.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)