El Al CEO David Maimon does not understand the public outcry against him and the company he heads at a time when it is rescuing Israelis who are stranded overseas. “Naturally, when there is extremely high demand, the cheaper tickets are snatched up, and what ‘s 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 order to change the pricing system upwards or downwards, I need at least two weeks’ advanced notice, it is not possible,” Maimon told “Globes.”
Everyone at El Al, from Maimon on down, including Workers’ Committee Chairman Asher Edri, who on a normal day butts heads with management, and the pilots, who before recent events occasionally “blew off” flights in protest of their heavy workloads - everyone was sure that Operation Protective Edge would be their moment of glory. Thanks to them, the closed skies would be open, and Israelis would thank them, and would show their support with their feet, and with their wallets, when it’s all over.
But the outrageously high rates that El Al has demanded from Israelis wishing to fly in or out with them have turned the matter on its head. The national carrier’s patriotic image has been tarnished. Many Israelis fumed about the “chutzpah,” the “cynical exploitation,” and the “cashing in,” during the country’s hour of need.
Many complaints of exorbitant prices poured in to “Globes.” One of them was from Eshel Shiloni, who tried to “rescue” his father, Amnon Shiloni, who was stranded at Vienna airport after Austrian Airlines grounded its planes. “I called the El Al sales center to buy my father a ticket. They said that there were no available seats left on the flights from Vienna to Israel, but because my father is a member of the Matmid frequent fliers’ club, they would check and get back to me.
“After some time, the representative got back to me with a price of $1,100 for a one-way ticket. I was shocked by the amount. That is more than double the price of a round-trip ticket under normal circumstances. Of course, I refused this highway robbery. I think that for a company that carries the Israeli flag on its airplanes, this is nothing short of a disgrace. I’m not one who wants to say bad things about El Al just because it sounds good, but, here, they really crossed a line, as far as I’m concerned.” Incidentally, Amnon Shiloni ended up returning on a Romanian airline, via Bucharest, on a flight that Austrian Airlines arranged for him.
“Globes” has discovered that yesterday and today there were, in fact, vast differences of hundreds of dollars between prices two days ago, before the wave of cancellations, and prices yesterday morning, at the height of the cancellation. For example, an El Al ticket to New York that cost $1,450 on Monday, jumped to $2,220 yesterday morning - a difference of $770.
An even greater difference, $784, was found in prices to Paris: fares jumped from $740 before the cancellations to $1,524 a few short hours after Air France announced that it was cancelling flights to and from Israel. Those who wished to fly to or from Amsterdam would have to pay $1,244 - $495 more than the price before the cancellations.
Maimon’s explanations did not satisfy Knesset Public Petitions Committee Chair Adi Koll, who announced that she would summon him to explain the matter at a special meeting on Monday. “The consumer public is not stupid. If it becomes clear that the company took advantage of the crisis Israeli residents are facing during this time, I am convinced that the public will know how to return evil for evil to the former national airline.”
El Al’s high prices also infuriated Meretz Chair Zehava Galon, who yesterday sent a letter to Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz, in which she called upon him to take action on the matter. “Following the foreign carriers’ announcements of their cancellation of flights to Israel, it appears that EL Al is inflating prices, and is taking advantage of the security situation to reap a profit. During this aviation crisis, under the cover of rescuing passengers stranded with no transportation options in Turkey, El Al did not forget to charge inflated prices for tickets.” She went on to say, “I wonder whether a company that claims to be the national airline has a right to be so greedy.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 24, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014