Flight cancellations continue: three El Al flights to Rome, Munich and Barcelona were canceled

Flight cancellations continue: On Tuesday, three El Al flights to Rome, Munich and Barcelona were canceled, and another Arkia flight to Heraklion. El Al claims that the cancellations of the flights have nothing to do with the management's ongoing dispute with the pilots, adding that negotiations between the parties are still ongoing.
According to EL AL, the cancellations today are not exceptional, and are related to general problems in the field of aviation in Israel and around the world, including point malfunctions in the aircraft, emergencies and problems related to landing at the destination. In May and June, tens of thousands of flights around the world were canceled every week, and the weekend of July 4 (American Independence Day) brings with it more chaos.
According to forecasts, the situation will worsen in the coming months: July is expected to be worse than June, and in August the situation will even worsen, due to the congestion and high demand. Many airports in Europe and around the world report long delays and congestion, as a result of which many flights have been canceled. Schiphol in Amsterdam and other airports have announced a reduction in the number of flights landing and taking off, among other things with the aim of reducing carbon emissions, so that the number of cancellations is expected to increase.
In Israel, El Al is one of the top flight cancellations at Ben Gurion Airport. The Airports Authority reported that in recent weeks the company has canceled more than 400 flights due to the dispute between management and pilots, which has refused to die for weeks. During the Corona crisis and since then it has not returned to its previous level.
About two weeks ago, this controversy reached the brink of an explosion. On June 16, EL AL management reported that it had filed an urgent application with the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court against the new General Workers 'Union and against the pilots' committee, in order to obtain an order prohibiting them from taking organizational measures and disrupting the company's flights.
The court's judge, Ariela Gilzer-Katz, denied the request for a temporary order, and ruled that the parties must conduct intensive negotiations for the next two weeks and report to the court every three days on the progress of the talks. The tribunal ordered the parties to abide by the employment agreements in good faith, as well as to maintain the regularity of the flight schedule, and since then the representatives of the parties have been sitting and trying to reach understandings.
An aviation source estimates that once the disputes are resolved there will be an improvement, and there will be a decrease in the number of flight cancellations. "The aviation world has been in an unreasonable situation in recent months," the source said. "Airports all over the world suffer from many cancellations due to incidents and congestion, so the situation in Israel is not unusual, and sometimes the reason for canceling a flight from Ben Gurion Airport is the difficult situation at another airport. However, it is clear to everyone that any canceled flight involves hundreds of angry and nervous passengers, who call the hotlines and have difficulty getting answers. "The airlines are doing everything they can to resolve this situation."