The El Al pilots’ sanctions continue and passengers continue to find their flight may be off schedule or even canceled as result. Management continue to insist that collective bargaining agreements have addressed the labor issues while pilots continue insisting they are overworked and underpaid and unwilling to continue at the current pace under current conditions.

The refusal of pilots to fly, usually announcing this decision shortly before a scheduled takeoff has resulted in the cancelation of many flights. Some travelers are unwilling to take a chance on missing a flight, especially those heading abroad for specific meetings or events for a short period, and they do have the luxury of gambling if their flight will takeoff on time, late or at all. As a result, some passengers are opting to fly with another airline and two of these passengers include the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Dovid Lau Shlita and Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita.

The most recent cancelations and delays announced on Monday 20 Cheshvan include the cancelation of flight 081 during the evening, which was to depart from Tel Aviv for Bangkok along with prolonged delays as flight 027 to New York has to be moved to another airline operating it for El Al.

Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef last week had to leave for a very brief visit to the USA and the decision was made to book with another airline to avoid delays. It is reported the rav will be returning on a different airline as well.

Rabbi Dovid Lau followed suit and was in Baltimore in the USA this past Shabbos was scheduled to return to Israel on Sunday on an El Al flight from New York but the flight was canceled. Hence Rabbi Lau was compelled to find connecting flights on other airlines to return home.

Also impacted was the Admor of Kapishnitz (קופיטשניץ) Shlita, who arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport and learned his flight was canceled. The rebbe arrived at the airport on Sunday morning 19 Cheshvan with five chassidim, expecting to head to New York. The flight was scheduled to depart at 9:40AM and shortly before that time it was canceled, only after passengers went through security and check-in.

The rebbe realized there would be no flight in the coming hours, returning home to Ezras Torah, Yerushalayim. It is reported that after much effort and Siyata Dishmaya the rebbe was able to depart at 1:00AM on another airline which includes a five-hour stop-over in Europe.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)