"Following the government decision to approve the Open Skies agreement with the EU in its current format, and the many queries to us, it is important for us to explain El Al's position to you. First, El Al favors open skies and favors competition, and it has coped with them for years. We do not take any passenger for granted. We only wish for equitable and fair reciprocal competition between Israel and EU member states," stated El Al on its Hebrew-language Facebook page yesterday, in response to the cabinet's approval of the Open Skies agreement with the EU.
Because of the decision, El Al has grounded all flights until further notice. In addition, at an emergency meeting yesterday, the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) announced that it will shut down Ben Gurion Airport for several hours from 5 am on Tuesday.
Although the Open Skies crisis appears to be far from over, El Al and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. are operating some flights today: El Al will fly to New York, Paris, and Madrid; and Israir will fly to Berlin. All other flights have been cancelled.
In the response on Facebook to the open skies agreement, El Al mentioned the differences in benefits that the agreement gives foreign airlines compared with Israeli carriers. "Whereas foreign airlines can land here without restriction at any hour of the day, safety restrictions ordered by the state's security authorities apply to Israeli airlines, which natural limits us from offering the same service."
For example, El Al noted that security directives prevent it from flying to Turkey, while Turkish airlines make more than 50 flights a week to Israel.
As for security costs, which have been spoken about a great deal in connection with the agreement, El Al says that it spends NIS 130 million a year, at the order of the Israeli government. "This is an expense that no foreign airline bears," says El Al. "Currently, only 70% of security costs are financed by the government, and El Al is demanding full financing."
El Al denies claims that it is a monopoly, saying that it competes against scores of airlines, "most of which are members of large aviation alliances in the world." It says that it cannot join any aviation alliance "solely for political and diplomatic reasons", because Arab airlines are members of these alliances.
El Al says that it is the government's responsibility to solve these restrictions before putting Israeli airlines in a position of competing on unequal terms. "Only then can El Al compete fairly under Open Skies," it says.
Israir CEO: We favor Open Skies
Israir CEO Uri Sirkis told “IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal) today, "I strongly hope that the discussions today and tomorrow will end the strike."
Sirkis added, "Do not be confused; we favor the agreement. We favor exposing Israel to the entry of millions of tourists; we're also in the tourism industry. There are a number of basic elements that the agreement has not dealt with, including the heavy security burden, which we want the government to finance, and the Restrictive Trade Practices Law."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 22, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013