Tel Aviv – Back in the late 1970s, El Al Israel, once a government company and now Israel’s largest publicly traded airline, invented a way of having its cake and eating it too – the ability to operate its aircraft on Saturdays with its pilots, flight attendants, and services, while declaring that it was a kosher airline that kept the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.
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The criticism in Europe over the fact that El Al’s charter subsidiary Sun D’Or International Airlines did not comply with the criteria of a fully independent airline, resulted in its license being revoked. This once again, for the umpteenth time, but more sharply than ever, raises the possibility that El Al will break the longstanding taboo, and fly on Saturdays.
“2011 won’t be an easy year for El Al in any case, because of rising competition. The option of completely grounding its fleet on Saturday is simply out of the question,” a source in the aviation industry told “Globes” on Friday.
“It’s not just on Saturday, there are also holidays and time differences that complicate the issue. It mustn’t be the Sabbath at the takeoff location or Sabbath at the destination. We haven’t even begun to talk about what this does to crew overnight costs abroad on Saturday, and a great many other aspects. It’s an incredible headache for an airline. No airline should have to deal with grounding its fleet for 20% of the time.”
Another top source said, “The religious are adamant on this point. They’ve been on this tree for a long time, and they have no intention of climbing down.”
In the absence of legal restrictions, El Al refrains from flying on Saturday out of fear of a harsh reaction by the religious community.
What about the possibility that El Al will fly on Saturday?
“At every foreign airline that would be the preferred solution. But it’s hard for me to believe that it will happen here. I have no doubt that we’re talking about a solution that would enable El Al to offer more flights at better times, and give customers greater flexibility in planning their trips. It would also help El Al move forward a little on international alliances with airlines, but it’s hard to see El Al doing that. One of my colleagues told me by phone this week, ‘They will never fly on Saturday. The haredim (ultra-orthodox) would stand at the takeoff line and throw diapers at them.”
Read full article in Globes
You bet we torah jews will never be m’challel shabbos in public.
every jewish business should shut on shabos. Many manage just fine
Let El Al be mechalel shabbat if it wants; there are plenty of other, goyish, airlines to choose from.
If we take our business there El Al will soon feel the drop in revenue.
We can’t force EL-AL not to be machalel shabbas the management is sadly not observant, we can however not fly with them if they choose to be machalel shabbas.
#3….they prefer the goyim who pay retail….
you do not.
its a win/win
if el-al is privately owned it shouldnt be diffrent then any other business whos owners are jewish and stay open on shabbos. we can encourge the owners to close we can ask people to patronize those establishments who close shabbos but other then that ultimatley its up to the owner who is tested with the nesoyon of shabbos to choose to close or stay open on shabbos. if the frum olam doesnt want to fly its up to them to choose. no one forces anyone to fly el-al you can fly delta,continental or us air out of phili or use the european connection flts their are many options today
though i can’t see the charedi consumer staying away even should they choose to fly on shabbos
lets not forget you cant force religion on people you can show them the beauty of shabbos but i doubt that will come about thru boycotts or demonstrations or throwing diapers!
a travel agent
We can’t have it both ways. If they want El Al to operate as a privately-owned for profit airline, let them operate the way they want. If its more profitable to operate on shabbos, so be it. If they conclude they will lose more money by operating on shabbos an losing the frum traveller market, than they won’t. If the government insists they not operate on shabbos, than the government should compensate them for the lost revenues and not complain about the lack of profitability.
I am not defending El Al and obviously every jewish company should be closed on shabbos. BUT. How many of us would support EL AL if they were the most expensive ticket to E”Y. Most of us look for the cheapest ticket and clearly EL AL can not be competitive by not flying on shabbos. So aren’t we being hypocritical? We demand El Al close on shabbos and when they are forced to raise prices we fly on a cheaper airline.
Maybe those of us who want El Al to close on shabbos should make sure to support them by always flying on El Al no matter what their price is. (as long as they stay closed on shabbos).
Shouldn’t we do our best to support jewish businesses that are shomer shabbos?
I will still fly with so will almost everyone I know some people will punish el-al but it will be a very small % because ultimatelythey are cheaper and don’t make you come 3 hours before a flight they have excellent flight times and the best security and the meah shorim ppl that fly to collect aren’t a big enough threat
Its amazing to see that after so many years when so many airlines lost billions and ElAl still was in the black making money and its all because of SHABBOS. It will be suicide for them to stop!
simple solution all the orthodox should pay more to support their strong believe that El Al not fly on shobbas just like they pay more for kosher meat
They are fools…..
They think that adding flights on shabbat will increase their revenue. Hahaha
Even if all the Frum Jews won’t boycott El Al, something else will happen, causing them to lose EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT, that they “supposedly” gained by flying on Shabbat!!
I thisnk that the ElAl management should consider the fact that so many years since they stopped flying on Shabbos NOT a single terrorist or mechanical disater happened to their airline. Its all in the Zechis of Shemires Shabbos. The management might be mechalel shabbos but the Israeli Flag on their tail wings call for a jewish state which is bound by the Aseres Hadibres and shemires shabbos is included…May hashem give them many many years os hatzlocho and safety in the merits of Shomer Shabos…
There was once before the World war a port city where there was a large presence of Jewish people and the port closed on shabbes!
I don’t see why the airport is open to begin with!
It should only have restricted flights!
I just cant understand whats the big issue you peaple are making about it. let them mechalel shabbos to show the world that they are not proper jews. and we should not fly with them now either. the reason why the prices to israel went up so much is becouse elal raized them knowing that everyone wantsto fly with them. you can see hundreds of destinations that are much longer and expensuiver taxes and airlines give them out for $800 for example nyc/hong kong or nyc / ammon / istambel / athens / budepast and much more. tax to israel is about $40 all europe is atleast $150 or london $250. cut the crap stop flying with them they have old planes bad service raises prices 4 times a year.
A Travel Agent.
I just hope that if they will chas vesholom be mechalel shabbos they should immediately go bankrupt!
The other airlines dont claim to serve only kosher meals either!
Usual Israeli Haredi hypocrisy and playing at being the big guys at play here. El Al is a private company. If you do not like its policies, don’t patronize it. End of story. The owners of El Al cannot be told how to run their business any more than any other private business. Most, and that means virtually all the Haredi population of Israel, regularly patronize a whole range of businesses that work on Shabbos. How many never use the telephone? Bezeq works on Shabbos. How many never travel on a bus? Egged works on Shabbos. How many don’t use water? The water company works on Shabbos. But we have no option, we have to talk on the phone get the bus to the nearest mall [many of which are also open on Shabbos], and certainly we need to use the bathroom, so we have no option. Agreed, but there is every option when it comes to flying. Everywhere El Al flies another airline flies to. Instead of lecturing El Al, start a Twitter, Facebook and email boycott campaign. But maybe first ask a serious Rov, yourself, not through one of the “askonim”, if it is better to give parnosa to a goy than a Yid, even one who is mechallel Shabbos.
To #19 & 22.
Yes, there was a European port closed on Shabbos prior to WWII.
It was Selonica in Greece, where the majority of stevedores,etc. were Shomer Shabbos Jews.