To be or to cease: El Al continues to cancel flights, until it finally disappears
El Al flights "canceled for operational reasons" were canceled again today, following a struggle between the pilots and the management regarding the improvement of their conditions.
Danny Sadeh thinks that if they are not educated in society to recover, it will cease to be soon.
And what unfortunate passengers are left unanswered.
opinion
Danny Field
19/05/2022
Thursday, 19 May 2022, 11:01 Updated: 12:24
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In the video: Aviation industry workers block (Photo: El Al Workers' Committee)
A senior official at El Al told me this morning (Thursday) that the media are just slandering the company and no cancellations were recorded on flights today.
"We're just rearranging the flight schedule and we do not have room for all the planned flights. So there are those who stay out," he explained - doubting seriously and certainly with a lot of cynicism.
And it reminds me that on one of my trips to Switzerland, it suddenly started to rain, it literally came out of nowhere.
We asked the host "What is it suddenly raining in the middle of summer?"
And he replied: "In Switzerland it does not rain. Sometimes we have to wash the mountains."
Yes.
Exactly so.
The morning started with El Al with the cancellation of four flights (which in fact is eight with computers also the flight back)
"for operational reasons"
.
One flight to Dubai, one flight to Zurich, one flight to Budapest and one flight to Munich.
And the day is not over yet.
Yesterday the situation was no better.
Four flights (eight frequencies) were canceled during the day, with the company leaving the passengers who need to return to Israel with an answer that sounds like: Arrange yourself.
Or we do everything to help, or in other words: buy tickets and send us the receipts.
When will you receive the money?
Do not ask such questions.
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EL AL announces postponement of flight to Dubai for "operational reasons", today (Photo: photos of surfers, screenshot)
"Get out of your air-conditioned office and call the reservation center"
The passengers who remained in the country are in no better condition.
Although they remain "the most at home in the world", as El Al's annoying chorus article, even if they receive a refund - it will be the amount they paid for the flight tickets they purchased a long time ago, while the price of tickets today is tens or even hundreds of percent higher.
Moreover, it is well known and clear that no one will compensate them for booking hotel rooms, for performances they lost, for the rental car and other reservations they made for the vacation.
Yesterday, the company held a press conference on the occasion of the publication of financial results for the first quarter of the year.
The company's CEOs, the one who was in it for less than a year and the one who is entering the position these days (and we must wish her success), were satisfied with the financial results. Reading them and understanding them - these are three different things.It's like saying that on Saturday there is a huge drop in fuel expenses in my car because I do not drive.
At the beginning of the week, EL AL customers received a letter from Oren Cohen Botansky, VP of Customers and Service at EL AL, in the following language:
"Dear EL AL customers,
the airport is bustling with life and the planes are full.
We are happy that the world has reopened to all of us and thank you for choosing us to fulfill your travel dream.
Like the entire global aviation industry, El Al also faces the difficult challenge of the immediate transition from a period of paralysis to a period of huge demand for flights abroad.
Unfortunately, during the paralysis we had to say goodbye to hundreds of talented service workers. Of recruitment and training of new service workers, "
he wrote, adding:
" Fortunately, during this period many of the workers we recruited finish their training and integrate into the service system, in a way that allows us to adjust the volume and level of service to the demand and standards expected of us. "
"Dear Oren," wrote one of the readers of this letter on a website, "get out of your air-conditioned office for a moment and call the company's order and service center at 03-977111 from an external telephone. The most at home in the world ', which has already passed its time and it is time to change it. I have some suggestions, "he wrote, telling of the long time he waited (an hour and 20 minutes) for someone at the center to answer him until he broke down.
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History: Dina Ben Tal Gensia, El Al's first CEO
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Continues, year after year, to lose market share.
EL AL (Photo: Official Website, Danny Sadeh)
On the blindness (of the passengers)
It seems that El Al has not yet realized that the years that it controlled the routes to and from Israel have passed.
Since the opening of the sky about a decade ago, many airlines have entered into operation in Israel, especially companies called "Lowcost", but the correct terminology should be low service, because their prices are not always cheap. , And especially in companies like EasyJet, Rainier, Visair and similar companies, on the one hand, and the disdain for customers who still remain loyal to the company and blindly buy the argument of "the safest company and the best pilots", no longer works.
Passengers today have many choices, some much better, Some of them are significantly cheaper, and the fact that EL AL continues, year after year, to lose market share is the best proof of this.
The company people, and that includes everyone - from owners, managers, pilots, customer service people and others - should internalize this before it's too late.
Because the struggles within the company, as well as the blindness of the management that failed to reinforce the workforce as soon as the relief began and after hundreds of employees were fired during the plague, really do not interest the customers.
Even the company's apology in the form of "we apologize for the inconvenience and do everything to find alternative solutions" is no longer acceptable and unsatisfactory.
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