Amid fears of restricting flights departing from the country, masses of Israelis took off for Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria • The aviation industry warned of further economic damage
The decision to suspend flights departing from Ben Gurion Airport has not yet been made, but reports of this have already caused masses of Israelis to storm the last available seats left on flights to countries that accept Israelis without the need for isolation.
5,000 Israelis went abroad today
5,000 Israelis took off from the country this morning.
12 flights departed for Greece, nine flights took off for Turkey and four flights were en route to Bulgaria.
It should be noted that returnees from Turkey will have to enter solitary confinement back in the country.
The decision to close Ben Gurion Airport almost completely will be made during the day. If the reduction of flights is approved, very heavy damage is expected to the industry, which has suffered since the first closure. Foreign airlines will probably cancel their flights to Israel. For example, Israir will have to take out empty planes from passengers to bring Israelis back to Israel, which entails large financial losses.
Although cargo flights will continue, quite a few of the cargo passes through the passenger flights.
As a result, significant damage to imports and exports is expected.
In addition, the Israeli airlines will have to send workers back to the IDF, just before El Al and Arkia were supposed to return to operations after many months.
Following the concern, various travel agencies reported a spike in cancellations and changes.
Thus, the Gulliver agency reported a 60% increase in calls and requests to cancel or change flights.
At the same time, it seems that many of the Israelis who booked hotels will not receive refunds.
In such a case, there is currently no law that covers the Israeli consumer and it is possible that the money will not be returned to them.
During the day, the Ministries of Transportation, Health and Foreign Affairs will try to formulate the correct outline that will prevent as much as possible the expected heavy damage to the industry.
A long closure of the airport is also expected to lead to damage to the activities of foreign airlines currently operating in Israel.
This is despite the fact that some foreign airlines may operate the flights as usual.
Kobi Sussman, CEO of IATA in Israel, addressed the Minister of Transportation, Miri Regev, in a letter in which he warned of the expected consequences for the industry:
It is possible that in light of the uncertainty in the flight operations, flights to the State of Israel will not be operated at all.
Airlines cannot operate on such short time targets.
This situation may harm passengers who may find themselves without the possibility of returning to their object district and transporting cargo to and from Israel. "Sussman called for immediate intervention to enable operational continuity in a way that would not harm passengers and airlines.
