El Al demands government pay compensation to travelers for canceled flights

Israeli flagship carrier El Al is urging the government to pay compensation to passengers for the cancellation of flights following the closure of the country’s airspace at the outbreak of war with Iran.

In a letter sent today to Transportation Minister Miri Regev, El Al seeks relief from regulations that mandate the carrier to compensate Israelis whose flights were canceled and who were stranded overseas for days due to the closure of the country’s airspace on February 28.

“There is no doubt that passengers whose flights were canceled during the operation and were forced to remain abroad for a longer time than planned until getting on a repatriation flight incurred significant expenses,” El Al says in the letter. “However, this responsibility to compensate passengers for their expenses during the stranded period, until the repatriation flight, should be borne by the state, not the airlines that were forced to cancel flights as a result of state decisions, and were also significantly harmed by the cancellation of flights.”

El Al says wartime restrictions on Israel’s airspace, which are severely limiting flight operations, are incurring $4 million in damages per day.

Israel’s airspace has been shut to most commercial traffic since the beginning of the war. Earlier this month, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport gradually reopened for limited air traffic operated by Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa to repatriate more than 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad.

Currently, government restrictions limit the number of passengers permitted on a flight departing Ben Gurion Airport to 50 people. In addition, only one flight is permitted to take off and land per hour. The restrictions have severely hampered Passover travel.

“State officials are throwing all responsibility stemming from the operation onto the shoulders of the Israeli airlines, while encouraging the public to sue the Israeli airlines, which are the only companies operating at this time,” says El Al.

El Al warns that without state intervention in paying compensation to passengers and changing regulations, irreversible damage will be caused to the stability of Israeli airlines, which continue to operate under missile threats and security risks, while foreign airlines have stopped their flight operations.