The El Al crisis just got worse. Two Saturday night flights to Bangkok and New Jersey were canceled after the pilots failed to show up, a third flight was delayed and a fourth was transferred to a leased plane.
Passengers are angry, saying, "They're holding us hostage." Meanwhile, both the company and the pilots blame the other side, and any negotiations have come to an impasse.
Erez Lev was scheduled to leave Israel with his parents and fly to Bangkok on flight 081, for a family vacation. After they went through security and were already waiting by the gate, they received a text message saying, "Dear passenger, because of pilots' sanctions your flight has been canceled."
Lev blamed the company management, saying, "It's not okay that they didn't tell us ahead of time. I don't believe they didn't know about this a while ago."
Another passenger wrote on El Al's Facebook page.
"It's amazing how easily you cancel flights. El Al - you've forgotten that behind every plane ticket is a person or a family. What will be? Someone needs to take responsibility for what happens. The public is slowly losing faith in what is supposed to be our national airline. It's an embarrassment. Refund every passenger who has had their flight canceled until you solve these internal problems of yours. We'll find a more reliable alternative," she wrote.
A third passenger fumed, "You're holding the public hostage. You won't cancel future flights, but you wait until the last minute before you cancel a flight. No one knows if they'll fly or not. You can't imagine the damage. It's not just a plane ticket, it's packages from abroad, work vacations, family vacations. These things are priceless."
El Al responded, "We see the harm done to passengers and company workers - stewards, ground crew, and cleaning crew - very severely. These people are forced to suffer because of the pilots' irresponsible behavior. We apologize to all the passengers for this damage, and we are determined to return the company to regular flight activity."
The pilots' board has explained the reason for the sanctions as "the management's behavior, and the 'clubmarket' headed by Tammy Moses-Borovich."
In their opinion, the "inflexibility of the company and their failure to properly manage things has caused damage to hundreds of additional passengers. A CEO who earns five million NIS but does this kind of thing should be replaced."