Globes is reporting, that El Al has rejected a demand by the Rabbonim to grant them veto rights to decide whether the airline should fly on Shabbos in an emergency.
The Rabbonim made the demand during talks between El Al and the Rabbonim.
During the talks, El Al stressed that it would continue its policy of not flying on Shabbos, as it has promised before, except in emergencies. El Al added that it retained the sole discretion to decide whether to fly on Shabbos or not, and that it had no intention of consulting with anyone on this matter.
Aviation sources believe that if the Frum Oilam act on their threat to boycott El Al, the airline will have no choice but to fly on Shabbos, since the Frum Oilam account for a fifth of its passengers. The absence of Frum passengers will force the airline to reconsider its steps.
The sources added, however, that it was doubtful that the religious public would act on the threat because it is considered a very accommodating airline by the Chareidi public, even though it was Michallel Shabbos.
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Aviation sources believe that if the Frum Oilam act on their threat to boycott El Al, the airline will have no choice but to fly on Shabbos, since the Frum Oilam account for a fifth of its passengers. The absence of Frum passengers will force the airline to reconsider its steps.
That’s an interesting tidbit. That means that the boycott would actually cause MORE chillul Shabbos. Interesting.
And, by the way, there’s not a company in the world that would grant outsiders veto rights. They’d have to be crazy to do that, it’s an unreasonable demand IMO.
Imo that makes no sense.if they DO account for 20% of its passengers,then obviously the charedi population has a tremendous advantage here.The airline needs the charedi people more than the charedi people need elal.Theres other airlines out there.Elal will have no choice but to conform to the rabbonims guidelines.Ok-maybe the rabbonim won’t get the vito rights they want,but they(elal) sure won’t fly on shabbos so fast.The day they do,they will face the bitter conseqences.its not worth the risk.And one more thing,i wouldnt mind doing a poll just in the lakewood and boro park communities alone on just how ACCOMODATING the airline is to the charedi public.The last time i checked,(and many flying experiences to israel myself),they were very “accomodating” with davening,movies…oh-and elal was also very accomadating by making sure that when people were davening(not properly dressed-to say the least) stewardesses passed by( i did say bumped in mistakenly-didn’t i?) every couple minutes to try to enhance the prayer sessions…
The sources added, however, that it was doubtful that the religious public would act on the threat because it is considered a very accommodating airline by the Chareidi public, even though it was Michallel Shabbos.
They are arrogant and impossible to deal with….
R US SAYING REB CHAIM IS CRAZY?????????????
What constitutes an emergency? That is the reason for this whole crisis, because El Al has a very different concept of the issue than the “Frum Oilem” does.
Unless there is a written limitation on the defiinition, this is a loophole large enough through which you can fly a jumbo jet.
food for thought
as someone involved in the travel industry i can tell you that el-al conceded that charedim account for 25-30% of its business
that is a considerable amount of business and not to be ignored
eventually el-al will back down and agree to the rabbonims demands or come up with a compromise to have a commitee of both rabbonim and airline personnal make these decisions in tandem etc as they do want the religious business
the other issue is how practical is the ban as how long will our olam t inconvenience themselves over the longrun if this ban goes on for a while as there arent too many other options to choose from
were not even talking about people who already ordered tickets and stand to lose 200.00 per ticket should they decide to cancel.
you can also be sure that el-al wont be waiving the penalty for people canceling their tickets do the rabbonims ban to fly them
and dont forget lo alynu what happens when sending an oran to eretz yisroel
continental a)is a very big bedieved for sending aronos and then youll have the kohanim problem which el-al is accomodating by not sending aronos thru newark only jfk flights above is just a small sample of problems arising out of the ban on el-al and it may very well be that the rabonim may cave in before el-al will
If the oilem doesn’t fly they’ll buckle in a second. The same amount of people fly each week just altering they’re schedules based on availability. Is everyone dying, other than those with an ultimate Tel Aviv destination, to fly El Al?
Makes sense they told them to get lost. I wonder if the rabbis will ask people not to fly ElAl. I wonder how many people know the ride on CO or DL is more comfortable anyway??
If the Rabbonim say do not fly, do you think the Ribono Shel Olam wants you to fly to Eretz Yisroel or be buried in Eretz Yisroel. Hopefully, the olam will do the right thing and listen to the Rabbonim.
TO ADDRESS MARK LEVIN
THE DELTA FLIGHTS THAT FLY DIRECT TO TLV FROM NYC AREA ARE ACTUALLY EL-AL AS DELTA HAS A CODE SHARE AGREEMENT WITH EL-AL UNLESS YOU TAKE THE DELTA FLIGHT TO ATLANTA AND CONNECT THERE TO TLV
Without going into details pro or con, we must remember that Rav Chaim Shlita, Rav Elyashav Shlita are not some Tom ,Dick or Harry Rov. They are among the greatest Gedolim that we have. Far be it for us to have the Chutzpah to try and second guess them. And remember when you go to Eretz Yisroel you go to Gedolim such as them for Brochos, advice etc. not the CEO of ElAl.
Chanie T.
At de end of the day, when it comes to busy periods very close to Yom Tov, and flights are full no other airline puts on two extra flights a day. If we wont be allowed to fly with el al, it wil be even more chaos getting around.
It amazes me that there are quite a few people that feel they really understand better the the gedolim. As mentioned above these are from the greates gedolim of our times and there are plenty of stories showing how the words coming out of their mouths come to fruition (not to mention the incident with the elal flight that had to return for an emergency landing just this week after reb chaim had said it is a “sakana” to fly with elal.
Do we need to wait for a terrible tragedy chas veshalom to happen in order to realize that we must adhere to their call?????
By the way I happen to be one that has a NON REFUNDABLE ticket with elal and I can surely feel the pain in the pocket. No one can say that its easy for me to sound so “erlich” and listen to their call. I wonder how many of those that feel they know better are loosing $$$ and maybe even the whole trip because of this
Lemaase, all ElAl has to do is lower the prices and the frum oilam will come running like bees to the honey. There will be some sort of “heter” that if its a “shas hadchak” e.g. someone is poor they can fly ElAl. They’ve been there in the past and they aren’t too concerned.
It’s simple. People who are Shomer Shabbos understand the issue and do not use Mechaleli Shabbos. People who themselves unfortunately are Mechalel Shabbos are generally not sensitive to the issue. So any so called “aviation experts” (anyone have an address for them?) are not Shomer Shabbos experts. If they choose to be Mechalel Shabbos because of the boycott, then we can understand that they cannot be trusted for a moment with this issue. Do you still want to fly with this airline?
To DWKL1,
I was referring to the DL flights thru ATL…. not the codeshare flights.
In fact I have been told Luftansa, if you can put up with flying a German airline, may be the best.
latest today friday erev shabbos fron page hamodea has a news report that rabbi shmuel from agudas yisroel is filing a class action suite against el-al to force them to refund all el-al tickets that are cancelled due the rabonims ban so abisel sechel u may get your money back after all then go fly continental
btw continental is a much more comfortable seat/flight andthey usaually have a higher % of availability on the cheaper priced tickets then el-al does though that may change if everyone starts flying with them
DWKL1 Thank you for the info. please keep me updated on it.
I doubt that anything will ever come of it as far as getting compensation, but I sure wouldnt mind.
I am still hoping that the idiots will realize the stupidity of their actions and put their heads down in shame and agree to what needs to be done
Some observations and thoughts. First, the “frum olam” spans a wide spectrum. Some people will follow the gedolim, others will not. So El Al is probably thinking that they do not have much to lose. However, even if there is only a 10 percent drop in their business, this could be their entire profit margin, and it could mattter significantly to them. But they have to see it happen before thy will conform to the gedolim’s request. If they try to fly regularly on Shabbos in order to make up for lost business, this would probably antagonize even those who as of now would still fly with El Al. So I doubt if that would happen. Now, suppose some representatives of the frum olam approach Continental explaining the situation and requesting more flights etc. to accommodate those who will not fly El Al. This is a highly competetive business. Don’t you think Continental will grab at the opportunity. Moreover, there is an inertia factor that smart business people understand. Once travelers switch to Continental and are satisfied, it would be difficult for El Al to win those customers back. Maybe El Al understands this too. The bottom line is that there are opportunities for the frum olam to achieve their Shabbos objectives, but they have to act in a concerted well-focused manner to do so.
I don’t understand… If chilul shabbos is the problem, why aren’t the gedolei yisroel trying to shut down the State of Israel’s international airport on Shabbos? What difference does it make that it is El Al when all the airport workers are Yidden too? Why should this private company be penalized any different then any other non-frum company? If shmiras shabbos is the issue in eretz yisroel, ban all planes from landing in Israel over shabbos and don’t have a double standard the forces El Al to operate at a disadvantage from its competitors as every other airline is free to operate on Shabbos.
Does the shmira against the Israeli airline not affect Egged busses that run on Shabbos throughout the country and have been targets of terrorists too? Why isn’t egged shut down on Shabbos? Why are charedim still riding Egged?