Israel’s national carrier El Al said Saturday it was forced to cancel several international flights after pilots refused to show up amid an ongoing labor dispute.
Four flights were canceled, delayed or transferred to alternate airlines on Saturday night.
Flight LY095 to Beijing, which was scheduled to take off at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, was rescheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday morning. Flight LY081 to Bangkok and flight LY027 to Newark were both canceled; flight LY001 to New York, due to take off at 00:45 a.m., was transferred to an alternate airline.
According to Army Radio, the pilots for the Newark flight called in sick, and 30 others refused to take their places.
The move was seen as an attempt by pilots to pressure the airline into increasing workers’ salaries and to improve labor conditions.
The head of the El Al pilots union, Nir Zook, criticized the airline’s management on Saturday, and accused its leaders of making decisions that were harmful to the company’s employees.
“We believe the management is harming the passengers and staff,” Zook said, according to Channel 2. “We apologize to the passengers for this inconvenience and we are working to return to our regular schedule.”
Zook lashed out at Tamar Mozes Borovitz, El Al’s vice chairman of the board, claiming her management was adversely affecting hundreds of passengers. He also criticized El Al CEO David Maimon, calling him unfit to lead the company.
El Al issued an apology to its passengers on Saturday, placing the blame on the pilots’ protest. “Sadly, the pilots continue, under the leadership of Nir Zook, to disturb El Al flights and inconvenience the passengers,” the airline said.
First of all you should inform El Al, each time I travel they send me a questionnaire which the seem very concerned to receive returned
I intend to go TLV -MIA end of secular year but El Al don’t fly direct
It is imperative that El AL received our information. It Honestly does help
Maybe you are on to something. I went from Miami to Zurich route. The first leg of the flight was Swiss Airlines, which was a breeze but there was definite bad attitude with EL AL.
I travelled twice in one year from from MIA-ZRH
It would be educational to inform us the flight destination and originating airport of those lousy flights
I travel regularly with El Al on the NY and LHR routes and have only the strongest praise for El Al and its ground and cabin staff. Obviously I have no interaction with flight crew so am incompetent to offer comments.
We travel a lot as a family with young children and know how difficult this is. But we have a routine and drill set up, when dealing with passengers and flight attendants in order to make the flight a little more bearable. On our last EL AL flight 2 of my kids got nauseous and began to throw up all over us. We requested napkins and drinks from the flight attendants while they were serving food. Since they were not near our row yet they refused to give us what we needed. They would not even allow my husband to… Read more »
Meir, the pilots dont give a hoot about your horrible food or cramped seats, they just want more money. The management also dont seem to care about the passengers. So we are stuck in the middle of this dispute.
Last flight with El Al was delayed twice amd they transfered us to a pprtugese airline. Wasnt plesant at all. The flight attendants werent attending anyones needs… food served late and cleared late as well… They better shape up or they’ll lose many customers!!
This is horrible!
my experience on my last el al flight was less than pleasant! horrible food,a broken seat,& packed like a fish in a can seating! I agree with the pilots!