The registrar of the Small Claims Court ordered the Israir company to compensate five family members with approximately NIS 29,000, including court costs, after the airline's negligence caused them to miss their return flight and instead of a two-and-a-half-hour flight, they underwent a two-and-a-half-day ordeal.
The court registrar noted that Israir's indifference to the plaintiffs' plight and the situation they found themselves in is outrageous and irresponsible.
In a similar case: the Israeli passengers were not notified of the advance boarding time - and missed their flight back to Israel (archive).
Photo: Blue Jordan
The plaintiffs ordered plane tickets, through the go to gate website, from Israel to Varna in Bulgaria and back.
The outbound flight proceeded as planned, while for the return flight the plaintiffs were unable to check in for the flight the day before on the Israir website.
They contacted the company and it replied that the type of ticket they purchased does not allow early check-in, but at the airport.
On the same day, 24 hours before the flight, the plaintiffs sent a message to the company stating that they found, according to the reservation number, that the flight was canceled and asked to find out the current flight details.
Israir replied that "you should contact the travel agent for further treatment".
The next day at noon, the plaintiffs were surprised to receive a message, via text message, with the following language: "According to the registration in the Israir systems, you did not arrive for your flight today, August 25, 22, from Varna to Tel Aviv, which departs at 11:25.
The schedules in your order were updated on 16.5 in the systems and a message was sent to the party with whom your order was made.
Please contact the travel agent or the website where the reservation was made for further processing."
As a result of her negligence, they missed the return flight.
Israir plane, photo: Photo: Koko
In the absence of any other reasonable possibility that the plaintiffs found at the time, they had to spend another night in a hotel and the next day they traveled by taxi to Sofia, for seven hours, and from there boarded a flight to Athens, where they waited another six hours and continued their journey by flight from Athens to Rhodes;
In Rhodes, they were informed that their flight to Israel had been canceled, and they had to spend an extra night until they boarded the flight back to Israel, a journey that lasted over two days, under a flight that was supposed to last only about two and a quarter hours, and at a cost many times higher.
Two months later, Israir returned to the plaintiffs the amount they paid for that flight, through the travel agency.
According to the plaintiffs, Israir did not inform them about the advance of the departure time, not even after they themselves proactively contacted the defendant and raised their plight, even before the flight they were supposed to board took off.
By not doing so, the company was negligent and caused them damages.
According to their opinion, the update notice that the defendant sent to the travel agency did not reach them and that she should have made sure that the update would reach them directly.
On the other hand, the Israir company claimed that it went beyond its duty when it sent the notice about the change in the flight times to the travel agency through which the plaintiffs made the reservation in the first place, as the refund of the payment for the flight was also made - through the travel agency.
In her opinion, from the moment the notice was sent to the travel agency, she is responsible for informing the claimants, so if she has not done so, then the claimants must direct their claims to her.
Israir plane (archive), photo: Gideon Markovich
The registrar, Mordechai Vahdi, did not accept the words of the Israir company and stated in the judgment that Israir's duty according to the law is to inform the passengers of any change in the flight times, and that it cannot go beyond its duty to send the notification to the travel agency without making sure that the same notification reached the passengers And if she did not do so, she was negligent in fulfilling her duty towards her passengers and violated the same agreement that was made between them upon purchasing the flight tickets.
"I found the defendant's conduct, which showed indifference to the plight of the plaintiffs and the situation they found themselves in, outrageous and irresponsible - to say the least - when it avoided a simple action, which as mentioned does not involve effort or financial costs, in order to fulfill its duty and make sure that its passengers are informed about the change in flight times" , wrote in the verdict.
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