Senior officials from the Health Ministry, the National Security Council and Home Front Command toured Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday morning in anticipation of a return to the normal operation of commercial flights to Israel and its subsequent positive effect on the economy.
However, according to Shmuel Zakai, the CEO of Ben-Gurion, normal operations of flights won’t begin before July.
“None of us wants infections to break out in Israel again and we all know that the virus came to Israel by air,” Zakai said. “According to the current pace, we’ll have dozens of flights to Ben-Gurion in mid-July and not before, maybe half a million passengers by then or in mid-September. As long as there is no vaccine and the virus can still spread from one country to another, there won’t be a significant change.”
Zakai added that flights will resume in June only to countries with low infection rates, such as Cyprus, Montenegro, Paphos, Greek Islands, Georgia and Slovenia.
According to Zakai, if the amount of passengers at Ben-Gurion in the next two years is one third the amount in 2019, then Israel is doing well.
מנהל נתב"ג שמואל זכאי בתום סיור עם נציגי משרד הבריאות לקראת חידוש הטיסות: "טיסות לקפריסין יחלו רק בסוף יוני-תחילת יולי. עשרות טיסות ביום יהיו רק במהלך יולי"@ittaishick pic.twitter.com/YnonFvmqcm
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 25, 2020
Amidst the ongoing tension in the airline industry, the heads of the El Al union were suspended by the Histadrut after a labor meeting erupted into chaos, with chairs knocked over on the floor and coffee cups spilled on the table.
Some media outlets said that the meeting was between the Histadrut labor federation, the heads of El Al and the union leaders but a Ynet report said that the union leaders disrupted a meeting between El al and the Histadrut, wreaking havoc to sabotage the talks.
The Ynet report quoted the union leaders as saying that 50% of El Al pilots who were laid off due to coronavirus travel restrictions were rehired but almost all other workers remain on unpaid leave, what they called “bullying behavior.”
El Al, which was struggling financially even before the coronavirus pandemic began, is on the verge of collapse. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it was forced to reduce its workforce by 90% and take funds from its pension accounts.
Currently, its only hope is a government bailout to Israel’s only national airline.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Health Ministry must wake up to reality and stop enforcing crazy quotas before broken chairs morphs into suicides.
So it’s not only Chareidim that are capable of wrecking havoc,
Just wondering where were the military ROTZCHIM?
Gevalt! Such a tragedy!!! Two chairs in a conference room turned over and some coffee spilled on the table. We need moishiach now.
WHERE’S MY REFUND?
El Al must wake up to reality, not the Health Ministry! Israel has spent over 20 BILLION (of tax payer money) to help recover! ALL of the cases of Covid reached Israel through air travel. It is very short sighted to think that we should just throw open the border and welcome back tourists, yeshiva bochurim, etc etc. Yes, this has been terribly difficult for pretty much everyone and B”H Israel has come gotten through this, SO FAR, relatively ok compared to other nations but PLEASE, we need to take it slow and steady. Until there is a test that can determine if someone has Covid within minutes, it seems like a terrible idea to open the floodgates. Israel shouldn’t cave to grown men throwing chairs and coffee.