Foreign air carriers have abandoned Israel during its multi-front war. I wish that they never come back.
A cousin once told a story about a young Israeli who made his way to New York. He started a new life and had lots of friends. His old sabra father once came to visit and was thoroughly unimpressed with the high living, the nightlife, and his son’s hip new friends. “You call those friends. I’ll show you that they are not.” The two proceeded to take a sack, fill it with potatoes and some ketchup and take it around to the boy’s new friends. “I hit a young kid who jumped in front of my car. Help me get rid of the body.” Each door slammed and the Israeli was told never to come back again. “Now, I’ll show you what a real friend is. I have a distant acquaintance with whom I have not spoken to in 30 years. Let’s go to his place.” They arrived and told their story. The old friend grabbed the bag, took it inside, and closed the door. “Now, that’s a friend!”
Israel, as a small country that for its entire history has been threatened with war and destruction, puts a very high price on international acceptance. When Israel was accepted into the OECD or when McDonald's began to set up restaurants throughout the country, it was considered a victory: Israel was a normal country like the others in the world. Winning gold at the Olympics or having a local professor receive a Nobel Prize is something that makes Israel feel that it is part of the international community and not the pariah state that its enemies still claim today. Pepsi eventually dropped its support for the decades-long Arab embargo and started selling products here during the 1990s. Coke has a massive bottling plant in Bnei Brak and has been here since the beginning.
The large European and American airlines have dropped their services to Israel. Initially, service was canceled for a few days or a week and then returned. When things heated up with Iran and later when Israel entered Lebanon, the major carriers simply canceled their flights, some saying that they’ll be back in the spring of 2025. I know that Israel needs these companies but as far as I am concerned I wish that they would never come back to fly here. The reasons for their disappearance seem to change. Some claim that they cannot get insurance, whereas the Israeli government is covering El-Al’s insurance, thus creating an unfair business advantage. Others cite the risk of damage and injury. I would not be surprised if the Biden White House or EU mandarins told the companies to drop Israel, trying to pressure the country into agreeing to a ceasefire and stop the fighting.
The questionable travel market had us push off planned travel to the U.S. from the summer to late fall. We were quite concerned that we could get stuck someplace, with no return flight in the offing. We personally know of multiple cases of people who could not get back here as planned. Their return flights were nixed and they needed to take multiple carriers to get back to Israel. The chutzpah of the situation can be seen in our son’s booking. He was scheduled to return to Israel on Virgin last week: Los Angeles to London, London to Tel Aviv. The second flight was canceled. The airlines state, “Hey your first flight is still okay, so we’re not going to return all of the money you paid.” “Yeah, but I have nothing to do in London; it was just a stopover before getting to my destination.” “Too bad, we’re only going to reimburse you for the second leg of your journey.” So while he was fighting to get his money back, I spent $750 to get him a one-way ticket on El-Al for LA-Tel Aviv.
Our plans were also confused. When I booked, there was a direct El-Al flight from Tel Aviv to LA. It was $700 more than a Lufthansa ticket that involved a stop in Munich on the way out and one in Frankfurt on the way home. As we were flying as a family I took the German option. Then Lufthansa canceled its flights for a period that included our departure date. An intrepid travel agent got us on El-Al to Munich, with the rest of the itinerary unchanged. Then Lufthansa canceled all of its flights. This was my worst-case scenario: no way back! The same travel agent called me while I was working out and told me to immediately send him all of our passport information. An hour later, we were on the El-Al direct flight from LA to Tel Aviv. I paid for Lufthansa and got El-Al.
Our stay in the U.S. was amazing, and everyone enjoyed being back. For our daughter-in-law and grandson, it was their first visit to America. And it was incredible, the best part, as always, being the people. El-Al has been making money hand over fist as it controls the skies over Israel. It is buying new planes and has improved its in-flight service significantly. El-Al only buys Boeing planes, as an acknowledgment of the great largess of the U.S. Airbus once tried to entice the Israeli carrier to buy its planes, even showing a mock-up with a synagogue on board. No dice; El-Al buys 737s and 787s.
But what of Delta, United, and American—all of whom have abandoned the Israeli market during Israel’s time of need? No doubt, when things become quieter, they will return, and they will offer attractive prices in order to get customers flying with them again. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers demobilized and wanting to travel, Israel will not be in a position to say no, especially as the U.S. government will very much want its lines flying again between the two countries. The same will be true for the European carriers, all of whom are not flying into or out of Tel Aviv. The funny thing is that FlyDubai is still running its multiple daily flights with Tel Aviv. Maybe they know something that the Europeans and Americans don’t?
If there was serious threat to planes, passengers, and flight crews, El-Al would not fly either. On our return, the captain flew us past Tel Aviv, around the Dead Sea and over Jerusalem in preparation for landing; he said that the modified route was reflective of the war going on in Gaza. On both El-Al flights, the crews thanked and praised the soldiers fighting for the safety of Israel and its people. One can fly to the other side of the world, but the war is always foremost in a person’s thoughts.
Israel is a part of the world community, but it needs to know who its fair-weather friends are. The airlines that dropped the market cannot be relied upon in a time of need. Fortunately, the U.S., Germany and several other countries have stood strong with Israel—in spite of the Biden administration holding up key weapons deliveries—something that Binyamin Netanyahu mentioned as one of the reasons for agreeing to the ceasefire with Lebanon. Will quiet in Lebanon bring back the recalcitrant carriers or will they wait for a final blow on Iran? Fortunately nobody in this household is in a big hurry to fly again any time soon. So we will just wait and see.