Thousands of Israelis stranded at Ben Gurion International Airport and at airports in the US and Europe, unable to go on vacation or to head home, have complained of significant price rises in airline tickets. Representatives from the foreign carriers report difficulty finding alternative flights, and say that many passengers seize every available seat.
Data gathered by ISSTA Lines (TASE: ISTA) indicate vast hikes, of hundreds of dollars, between airfares yesterday, before the wave of cancellations, and this morning. For example, an El Al ticket to New York that yesterday cost $1,450, today jumped to $2,220; a difference of $770.
El Al CEO David Maimon told “Globes” that the company did not raise prices, and said that the allegations are a cynical manipulation of the situation: “Naturally, when there is extremely high demand, the cheaper tickets are snatched up, and what is left are the more expensive ones - and this is what happened. The last fare is always the most expensive. We did not change our pricing system, which was set six months ago.”
In a statement, the company said: “Over the past day we have been making efforts to increase our flights and service. Among other things, the company added two flights to Greece and to Cyprus, and increased and allocated wide aircraft with hundreds more seats to destinations in Europe. In addition, the company increased its customer service center’s hours or operation in order to answer to the needs of as many Israeli passengers around the world as possible.
“Ticket prices were set in advance, in keeping with the peak Israeli travel season over summer vacation, and were not changed due to the cancellation of flight by foreign carriers.”
Foreign carriers have said that they will try to find alternate flights for their customers, and, if there are none to be found, they will put them up in hotels, although there are quite a few companies that are refusing to do even this.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 23, 2014
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