El Al plane at Ben Gurion Airport
El Al plane at Ben Gurion AirportPhoto by Tomer Neuberg/FLASH90

El Al has promised to complete in June the refund process for all Israeli customers whose flights were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline has brought 300 service representatives back to work, and money has been earmarked specially to advance the process of providing customers with refunds.

Those customers who have chosen to receive a cash refund will receive an email containing the date the transfer will be made. The refund for customers who purchased tickets via a travel agent will be handled by the travel agencies.

The process of returning the funds to customers is complex and requires care and precision with regards to each customer, and includes, among other things, speaking directly with the customer, who is then able to choose whether to receive a voucher or a refund.

Customers who have not yet chosen how to receive their compensation will receive an additional email in which they will be asked to choose their preferred method of compensation.

El Al CEO Avigal Soreq said: "The refunds are an extremely important task to El Al - the customers are at the top of the pyramid, and we will do everything in order to ensure their safety and money."

"We are dealing with a financial crisis stemming from the global coronavirus crisis - many governments in the world have understood this and helped the airlines by giving them tens of billions of dollars. Only recently did we receive the funds from the government, and in accordance with that we are conducting the refunds, to keep our commitments to our customers."

El Al Deputy CEO and company headquarters chief Shlomi Am-Shalom said: "The national airline, El Al, is working with transparency and will update regarding the progress in the refunds, until the process is completed."