Dutch airline cancels meal vouchers because of unruly Israelis

Transavia CEO: We would need an extra stewardess on every flight just to keep order.

The “Yediot Ahronot” Hebrew daily reports that Dutch airline Transavia has decided to discontinue the use of meal vouchers on its flights to Israel, after Israeli passengers began misbehaving on flights, harassing the stewardesses, and trying to transfer food coupons from one passenger to another.

ISSTA Lines (TASE: ISTA) represents Transavia on the Amsterdam-Israel route. Transavia gives all its European passengers the option of cheaper flights, while paying for vouchers for drinks, sandwiches, and snacks on flights. Several months ago, the airline decided to extend this option to its Amsterdam-Israel route. Passengers were issued €15-vouchers for food, wine, beer, soft drinks, and snacks on two-way flights.

Issta Lines managing director Ahishai Gal said that Israelis were simply unaccustomed to the method, which is used all over the world. The Transavia CEO said, “If someone buys food for €13, he wants to give his unused balance to someone else, who wants to buy food for €17, without paying the extra €2. The stewardesses would have had to run up and down the plane with calculators in order to keep track of the Israelis passengers’ arithmetic. This method makes it possible to use one less stewardess on each flight, but we would have had to add a stewardess on flights to Israel to keep order.”

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 22, 2004

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018