El Al faces Sabbath Flight Problems

Posted 27/04/2011

El Al could be forced into making a major decision on its future flight operations following the recent closure of its wholly-owned charter division Sun D'Or International Airlines.  The company had operated a number of regular and ad hoc flights from Tel Aviv to destinations throughout Europe for its parent company, including flights on behalf of El Al on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.  However, its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) was revoked on April 1 and El Al has subsequently turned to Arkia and Israir to provide capacity, most notably to maintain Sabbath operations. 

Now, a respected Israeli newspaper has reported that Arkia will stop providing flights for the national carrier from May 1 and that Israir is considering a similar move.  The report in Globes quotes a senior executive at an Israeli charter airline as saying:  "We gave El Al several weeks to organise itself and fly with our code, but we have the feeling that they're trying to trick everybody at the expense of the other airlines.  It's unacceptable that this trick should become a permanent solution that will hurt us.  They have to decide what they want to do. This cannot go on." 

El Al now faces a major dilemma of potentially suspending all flights on the Sabbath and losing substantial revenue, or flying on the Sabbath and losing haredi (ultra-orthodox) patronage.

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