The El Al crisis continues, and the company’s management lays the blame for the cancellation of flights on the shoulders of the pilots for what they claim is the pilots’ refusal to fly.
Arutz Sheva recently spoke with Captain Offer Aloni, who offered his view of the situation.
“When I have a prearranged flight, I fly. According to our contract, we’re entitled to rest in the gaps between flights. The airline has been trying to fill open flights by asking us to fly during those gaps, and I am under no obligation to do so.”
“When I return from a flight to New York, I’m supposed to get three days’ rest before flying again to Hong Kong for four days. When the airline calls me the morning after, my flight asks me to fly to New York that day with a connecting flight, I’m basically gone for 11 or 12 days. I miss important medical appointments, don’t have a chance to care for my sick father. I know that there’s a problem, and I’m willing to fly, but don’t wait until the last minute to inform me.
“Unlike the management, we don’t know how to tell our side of the story to the media.” He blames the public relations firm hired by the company for denigrating pilots in front of the public. “Until the day before yesterday, we pilots were the most skilled and valiant citizens, and now they’re trying to portray us as small-time crooks. That’s what hurts the most.”
One of the key issues in the dispute is the practice of allowing pilots to fly their planes one way only and flying them back to Israel business class. “It’s true that a pilot flying one way is much more expensive, but to put out 300-400 passengers by cancelling a flight, saying that the pilot didn’t show up is a lie that makes us look like thieves. I’m not ashamed of our salaries. We do difficult work. When the missiles were flying, El Al’s outside help fled, but we stayed. Now that everything is back to normal and the company is making a $100 million in profit - not by virtue of the management’s wisdom, but because of the drop in the price of gasoline and in the dollar - they’re blaming the pilots for hurting the passengers.”
In response to the recent disruptions in service, El Al said, “In recent months, we have witnessed disruptions in our service due to the actions of the pilots under the supervision of the pilots’ representatives. In view of the pilot’s continuing sanctions, we cannot ignore this behavior. The time has come to take significant measures to stop the chaos created by the pilots and return to orderly service.”
“We decided not to accept further attempts at blackmail. The pilots have refused to fly back and forth, insisting on flying one way only and flying back business class, at the expense of paying passengers. Unfortunately, because of this, we have had to cancel or delay flights in recent days. We know this is a great inconvenience, and we greatly regret harming the passengers.”