The following article is from Globes:
Back in the late 1970s, El Al Israel Airlines, once a government company and now Israel’s largest publicly traded airline, invented a way of having its cake and eating it too – the ability to operate its aircraft on Saturdays with its pilots, flight attendants, and services, while declaring that it was a kosher airline that kept the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
The criticism in Europe over the fact that El Al’s charter subsidiary Sun D’Or International Airlines did not comply with the criteria of a fully independent airline, resulted in its license being revoked. This once again, for the umpteenth time, but more sharply than ever, raises the possibility that El Al will break the longstanding taboo, and fly on Saturdays.
“2011 won’t be an easy year for El Al in any case, because of rising competition. The option of completely grounding its fleet on Saturday is simply out of the question,” a source in the aviation industry told “Globes” on Friday.
“It’s not just on Saturday, there are also holidays and time differences that complicate the issue. It mustn’t be the Sabbath at the takeoff location or Sabbath at the destination. We haven’t even begun to talk about what this does to crew overnight costs abroad on Saturday, and a great many other aspects. It’s an incredible headache for an airline. No airline should have to deal with grounding its fleet for 20% of the time.”
Another top source said, “The religious are adamant on this point. They’ve been on this tree for a long time, and they have no intention of climbing down.”
In the absence of legal restrictions, El Al refrains from flying on Saturday out of fear of a harsh reaction by the religious community.
Yair, a religious passenger who is a member of El Al’s frequent fliers club, is one of many passengers who, he says, wrote to El Al last week to tell it that they will stop flying the airline if it desecrates the Sabbath. “I prefer a goy pilot who eats pork in shrimp sauce than a Jew who desecrates the Sabbath. This is a matter of principle,” he says. “This plane of a foreign airline will fly on Saturday regardless. As a Jew, there’s nothing I can do about that – but for a plane bearing the Israeli flag to fly on Saturday with a Jewish pilot, who knowingly and deliberately desecrates the Sabbath and also causes several hundred other people to do so, with a Shield of David on the tail? This is something that everyone who holds the Sabbath dear must fight against.”
“Globes”: So you’ll fly abroad with a German or American airline, jeopardizing the jobs of Jews, because of a decision to fly on Saturday?
Yair: “If I have to, yes. There’s a limit. No German or American airline flies with the Shield of David or markets itself as the airline of Israel. Do you know what El Al’s slogan is overseas? ‘This isn’t an airline, it’s Israel’. That’s what they’re selling. So I should lend a hand to the Israel that they’re marketing abroad becoming an Israel of mass Sabbath desecration?”
The prevailing assumption at El Al, and among various sources in the aviation industry, is that, despite everything, El Al will avoid flying on Saturday as much as possible – and forego a large chunk of revenue, to avoid damaging its unique brand.
Solutions under review by El Al include leasing its planes to other airlines, and establishing a new and more “established” subsidiary with independent pilots and air crew (a plan that could be problematic in view of the understandable objections by El Al’s workers committee against sacrificing its members for the sake of the subsidiary).
Leading travel agencies declined to say last week whether the pending closure of Sun D’Or would reduce competition in the charter market and cause prices to rise. The agencies preferred to focus their efforts on dealing with angry Sun D’Or passengers whose April reservations might not be honored. Travel agents have been calming customers and saying that it’s business as usual.
As for prices, the agents say that they will stay low. “There’s little room to fall. Airlines are offering $99 tickets to Europe, and that will continue. Sun D’Or is an important player, but not the only one. A lot of European charter airlines fly here, and both they and Israeli airlines are waiting to pick up Sun D’Or passengers if it is grounded,” an agent told “Globes”.
What about the possibility that El Al will fly on Saturday?
“At every foreign airline that would be the preferred solution. But it’s hard for me to believe that it will happen here. I have no doubt that we’re talking about a solution that would enable El Al to offer more flights at better times, and give customers greater flexibility in planning their trips. It would also help El Al move forward a little on international alliances with airlines, but it’s hard to see El Al doing that. One of my colleagues told me by phone this week, ‘They will never fly on Saturday. The haredim (ultra-orthodox) would stand at the takeoff line and throw diapers at them.”
(Source: Globes)
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15 Responses
Since, sadly, the ‘machers’ of El Al are Not frum, it is money that talks.
Since most El Al flights from chutz La’Aretz are full, and since most, or at least a very large percentage of those travellers ARE frum, El Al would be very foolish to be mechalel Shabbat.
They WOULD lose a huge percentage of their passengers if they did so. El Al is not exactly famous for it’s spacious seats or great customer service. People fly because as their slogan says, with El Al you feel you are Ha’chi Ba’bayit – the most at home. If they are not shomer Shabbat, that will NOT be the case.
The “Yair” in this article spoke well.
El-al. Is the most dirtiest. Airline I’d fly with El-al but if they start to desecrate the sabbath I will no longer fly with them ! The only reason I fly with El-al is because some of its jewish staff -I feel for them and I like dealing with jews !
El AL is a public company. Frum people should start buying El Al stock to increase Frum influence there.
None of this will matter if El Al can’t make a profit.
The man is right. They represent yiddin and Israel with their Mogen Dovid. For them to operate on shabbos is a MAJOR chillul HaShem – far more than any protest.
Presumedly, El Al is the only airline that has plain clothesmen aboard every flight, providing insurance against hijacking and unforseen acts of terrorism.
NO OTHER AIRLINE IN THE WORLD PROVIDES THAT KIND OF SECURITY!
And since the influx of tourism is critical to Israels economy, Israel will keep El Al operational at all costs.
So, frum people should buy stock and speak up at next shareholders meeting. Otherwise, the only talking you will be doing is to the stewardess on the non el al flight as you beg her for your kosher meal, a place to daven or a reprieve from the movie being shown.
Charlie, it is far better that there is no “national” Israeli airline, if is mechalel shabbos. If ElAl were to stop flying, there will be others a take over their slots without blinking an eyelash.
Since when is El Al a Shomer Shabbos airline? Their flights from London in the summer leave about 5 minutes after Motzoei Shabbos and I don’t think that the crew quickly make Havdoloh at their airport hotel and then rush over to the gate. Which makes me strongly suspect that the company runs perfectly “normally” on Shabbos – doing maintenance and other back office functions. It just doesn’t fly.
So why do most people seem to think that it’s a Shomer Shabbos company?
If you can, buy El Al stock; but can you buy Knesset “stock”.? ‘Stockholders’ in E.Y. can’t influence the Knesset enough until the MK’s are Shomer Shabbat. And Bibi???
Att Stockbrokers: Instead of buying stock in ElAl, buy stock in HKBH. It will do you MUCH better.
9. The maintenance work is more b’tzina. Flying with the flag of Israel on the plane on shabbos is b’farhesya and is MUCH worse.
Shark Eyes, probably the only way to keep El Al afloat as a shomer Shabat airline is with a massive government subsidy. Normal airline business models barely work when the price of oil is $60/barrel. With oil at $105/barrel, even airlines that utilize their aircraft to 100% capacity have trouble. Because of the prep time for flights, a shomer Shabat airline loses almost two days of flying time. Maybe the airline business isn’t something meant for Jews.
Mark Levin, as #9 GG-chap points out, El Al has NEVER been shomer Shabat. It has always done maintenance on aircraft on Shabat, and its wholly owned fake subsidiary Sun D’Or flies on Shabat.
Another issue with El Al: It has all of 38 airplanes, plus the 4 that are on permanent loan to Sun D’Or. By comparison, Southwest Airlines has 550, American Airlines has 624, and Delta Air Lines has 744. El Al is simply not a major player in world air travel.
Poor Charlie Hall is missing the boat once again!! The issue is that it is a MAJOR CHILLUL HASHEM to have the “national” airline of Israel, which regardless of what you want to think, to the ayno yehudim out there REPRESENTS Jews, flying over the cities on Shabbos. We all know that there is maintenance on Shabbos but again, that is b’tzina (SECLUDED!) and not out in your face. NO ONE claims they are fully Shomer Shabbos – although that would be a KIDDISH HASHEM.
Sorry Charlie but there is a difference according to Halocha.
I quote menachem Begoin from the Prime Ministers By Yehuda Avner.
“Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, members of the Knesset,” Begin began, “the government has decided that following a time lapse of three months, the aircraft of our national airline, El Al, will no longer fly on the Jewish Sabbath and festivals.” This announcement resulted in looks of sheer hatred appearing on the faces of the union men, who sat watching the proceedings in the public gallery. The opposition benches erupted into paroxysms of heckling: “So why don’t you shut down the television on Shabbat, too?” screamed one. “Are you going to stop Israel merchant ships at sea, too?” yelled another. The derision fazed the premier not one bit. On the contrary, it supplied him with new inspiration. “Shout as much as you want,” he taunted, scanning the opposition faces with scorn, his gaze finally settling on the young radical leftist, Yossi Sarid. “I have nothing to say to you and your kind. In fact, I have nothing to say to anyone who supports a Palestinian state, which is a mortal danger to our people.” And then, changing his tone, altering his voice to a muted, sonorous pitch, this man who believed in oratory as the supreme weapon, an artful combination of style, cadence, and the application of formidable intellectual energy, argued, “Forty years ago I returned from exile to Eretz Yisrael. Engraved in my memory still are the lives of millions of Jews, simple, ordinary folk, eking out a livelihood in that forlorn Diaspora, where the storms of anti-Semitism raged. They were not permitted to work on the Christian day of rest, Sunday, and they refused to work on their day of rest, Saturday, for they lived by the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ So each week they foreswore two whole days of hard-won earnings. This meant destitution for many. But they would not desecrate the Sabbath day.” “So, stop football on Shabbat, too?” heckled Sarid, triggering off yet another squall of jeers, hissing and name-calling.
“Chutzpah!” boomed Begin, bristling. “I speak of our people’s most hallowed values and you dare stoop to mockery. Shame on you!” With arms held high, he thundered, “One nation alone sanctified the Shabbat, a small nation, the nation that heard the voice at Sinai, ‘so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.’ Ours is the nation that bequeathed to humanity the imperative of a day of rest to apply to the most humble of beings. Ours is the nation that gave the laborers the dignity equal to that of their employers, that both are equal in the eyes of God. Ours is the nation that bequeathed this gift to other faiths: Christianity – Sunday; Islam – Friday. Ours is the nation that enthroned Shabbat as sovereign Queen.” A chorus of approval from the government benches went up, muffling every last vestige of dissent. Begin, idol of the common folk, caught up in his enthusiasm and sense of mission, rose to a crescendo. “So are we, in our own reborn Jewish State, to allow our blue and white El Al planes to fly to and fro, as if to broadcast to the world that there is no Shabbat in Israel? Should we, who by faith and tradition heard the commandment at Sinai, now deliver a message to all and sundry through our El Al planes – ‘No, do not remember the Sabbath day. Forget the Sabbath day! Desecrate the Sabbath day.’ I shudder at the thought that the aircraft of our national carrier have been taking off the world over on the seventh day over these many years, in full view of Jews and Gentiles alike.”