Air France yesterday cancelled half its Paris-Tel Aviv flights. Travel agents yesterday called for a boycott of Air France.
The Hebrew daily “Yediot Ahronot” reports that Air France yesterday announced the cancellation of one of two daily flights to Israel. Although the step was taken on the eve of the peak season for air traffic to Israel, the airline said the cancellation was due "to low occupancy on the flights". Company sources told "Yediot Ahronot" that the main reason was that the company is afraid of allowing its air crews to sleep in Tel Aviv.
Air France has 14 regularly scheduled round-trip flights between Paris and Tel Aviv a week, one each afternoon and evening. Air France will henceforth only operate the daily evening flight from Tel Aviv to Paris, without a layover. Air France was the first airline to halt its air crews' layovers in Israel due to terrorism. While other European airlines, with the exception of Alitalia, returned to their regular schedules and air crew overnight stays, Air France has continued its policy of stopping in Larnaca, Cyprus on the Paris-Tel Aviv flight. Flight crews are replaced in Larnaca, with the fresh crew continuing to Tel Aviv and then returning to Paris. Officially, Air France claims that a variety of technical reasons have prevented its air crews from staying overnight in Israel.
Travel agents yesterday called for a boycott of Air France, "for treating Israel as a marginal route and choosing to abuse passengers by changing timetables." The agents said that Air France's explanations for the flight cancellations is ridiculous, in light of the increasing demand this year for organized tours and package holidays in France.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 19 June 2001