The dispute between El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) management and its pilots' committee is escalating. More of the company's scheduled flights did not take off as planned: flight LY333, scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion Airport at 4:00 PM on its way to Brussels, was canceled, and the return flight scheduled to take off from Brussels at 9:30 PM was therefore also canceled.
The presentation of clashing versions of the facts by El Al and its pilots has reached a new peak in recent days. Both sides are pulling out all the stops in the dispute, and the big losers from it are the passengers, whose plans are being disrupted. In many cases, the passengers are learning about the changes only when they have already reached the airport.
El Al's cabin crew and other company workers are also suffering; they are showing up for flights that do not take place, and have had to return home without being paid for working hours as a result of flight cancellations.
The passengers have the option - now more relevant than ever - of flying on another airline. Thanks to Israel's open skies policy, innumerable airlines are delighted to receive passengers to fill up their flights, especially during the winter. Passengers can reach any destination they wish, albeit through connection flights.
Katz: End the dispute immediately
Earlier today, Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz called what was happening a tragedy, saying, "All those involved must end this dispute and preserve the asset of people's loyalty to Israeli companies. Maintenance of loyalty and quality is the big key. A customer who leaves does not return. Contrary to expectations, El Al has found its place in the open skies policy, and its takeoff must not be shot down. The open skies reform has led to free competition and preservation of the soundness of the Israeli airlines. Israeli passengers have voted by getting on the plane, and the percentage of those traveling on Israeli airlines has risen."
Clashing narratives
The different stories told by El Al management and pilots is highlighted by today's canceled flight to Brussels. While El Al made it clear that the flight had been manned (meaning that it appeared in advance on the pilots' flight schedule), and there had simply been no one to fly it, the pilots' committee insists that this is demagogy.
"El Al management, at the explicit order of the board of directors and the CEO, is causing unprecedented harm to the company's passengers without blinking an eye. All of the flights could have taken off on time, because there are pilots willing to fly them," the committee responded.
In recent days, El Al has reported a lack of response from its pilots. Yesterday, the company published an announcement listing the responses it had received from its pilots who it said had been scheduled to fly on flight LY027 to New York, whose takeoff this week had been delayed from the night to the noon on the following day.
What about compensation?
The frustrated passengers can take comfort in the Aviation Services Law (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellations and Changes in Conditions) - 2012, which sets compensation for cancellation of a flight under certain conditions (for example, in case of an organized strike, the airline is not legally obligated to compensate passengers).
Advocates Vered Cohen and Raanan Bar-On explain that unavailability of pilots is not classed as a reason exempting the airline from providing monetary compensation. The law stipulates compensation in the NIS 1,290-3,080 range, in addition to giving back the money the passengers paid for their tickets. Compensation is determined by the flight distance.
At the same time, Cohen and Bar-On made it clear that the airline is exempt from providing this compensation in cases in which the passengers reach compensation agreements with the airline, for example, if a passenger agrees to accept a free ticket (in addition to reimbursement for the original ticket). The same is true in a case in which the passenger was notified of the expected cancellation, and was offered an alternative flight close to the original flight (from one hour in advance of the takeoff time to two hours after the original landing time).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 16, 2016
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