Shortly before the start of the festive flyover in honor of Independence Day, the El Al aviation company was forced to cancel its participation in the event due to a protest by mechanics who were supposed to prepare the Dreamliner for takeoff.
Parallel to this development, El Al was obliged to cancel around 10 commercial flights, including those to Athens, Brussels, Frankfurt, Catania, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, and Thessaloniki.
The staff disputes are particularly disturbing for new El Al CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia, given that she only assumed the position a month ago.
In a statement, the El Al management expressed its disappointment:
"We very much regret that El Al was unable to participate in the festive flyover of our 74th Independence Day. This is a serious incident, and we are in the process of investigating all the details in order to ensure that such an incident does not happen again."
The El Al workers' council stated in response that, "El Al staff are currently dealing with the chaos created by the wave of cancellations that is the result of a lack of pilots. Our first priority is to take care of the company's passengers and not the flyover conducted by the Israeli Pilots' Union."