Knesset panel demands state share losses to passengers and airlines during Iran war |
Lawmakers on Sunday urged the government to agree on a compensation framework that will provide legal certainty to both consumers whose flights were canceled when the country’s skies were closed because of the recent war with Iran, and to Israeli and foreign airlines that suffered losses.
Knesset Economics Affairs Committee Chairman MK David Bitan, lawmakers, and aviation representatives called on the ministries of transportation and finance to formulate a special compensation plan that will protect consumers and assist airlines to help ease the financial costs of disruptions during the war.
“Ultimately, if we don’t issue an order that adapts the Aviation Services Law to the emergency situation, the state will have to pay much more to airlines because of the damages that will be caused to them,” said Bitan. “If the government doesn’t step in, it saves NIS 200 million ($69 million) now, but it will cause enormous damage to consumers who will pay three times as much for a plane ticket because foreign companies will not want to fly to Israel for fear of class action lawsuits.”
When the war erupted on February 28, Israel initially closed its airspace to civilian traffic completely, forcing all airlines with routes serving the country to cancel, and leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded abroad. After a week, it eased restrictions, though operations were still at only a fifth of pre-war levels, and only Israeli airlines – El Al, Arkia, and Israir — were authorized to operate.
El Al and other local airlines have warned that without state intervention to pay compensation to passengers and changing regulations, their stability would be irreversibly damaged, as they continued to operate under missile threats and severe passenger and flight restrictions, while foreign airlines stopped their operations entirely.
“We canceled about 1,500 flights in the past month and lost about $4 million per day of........