El Al was forced to cancel several flights on Monday due to the limited number of expected passengers on the plane, Calcalist reported.
According to the report, El Al sources said that the flights aren’t covering the expenses.
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 of 1,000 employees.
Some of the flights that were canceled were to destinations that aren’t considered high-risk at all – the UK, Austria and Germany. “The passengers are simply not arriving. There’s no point in flying,” the El Al source said.
A Calcalist report on Sunday said that El Al froze a number of pilot training courses as well as flight training courses.
Sources from the Finance Ministry expressed anger at El Al for canceling the flights to Europe, according to the report, saying that it may be an attempt to exert pressure on the government which is currently in discussion with El Al on a “rescue package” for the national airline.
“Due to the special circumstances in light of the coronavirus, including the guidelines and recommendations of the Health Ministry to the public, we are forced to make commercial adjustments on certain flights,” El Al stated. “Within this framework, we are also offering alternatives on other flights. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Switch the picture, Elal retired the 747
Simply El Al trying to squeeze more money out of the Israeli government. Let El Al go down the tubes. There are better alternatives to every route it flies. The latest news is that it is canceling flights to Cyprus due to a lack of demand. I have flown back and forth from Israel to Cyprus with Ryanair this week and both flights were very full, but then Ryanair has a great time keeping record and charges much less than El Al. When will people learn that the myth about El Al being more secure is just that, a myth, and an expensive one at that..
jerusalem observer – as a frequent flyer of El Al as well as a number of other airlines (both US and European), I can say that no, there are NOT “better alternatives to every route it flies”. Their prices are generally competitive, and they are no worse from an on-time perspective than most other airlines. Most importantly for a Frum traveler, their food meets at least a basic level of Kashrus (though I agree that there are strong grounds to be Makpid and ask for a higher level), and their policy not to fly on Shabbos means that when I fly them, I know there’s a possibility I may get stuck someplace (Athens, anyone? or even at the airport over Shabbos), but at least I won’t be flying on Shabbos itself.
Is El Al perfect? Unfortunately, far from it. But don’t make them out to be worse than they are.
an Israeli Yid