Sun d'Or International Airlines (Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) has been forced to cancel its planned summer flights out of Tel Aviv Ben Gurion to each of Ibiza, Corsica and an undisclosed third destination among the shortage of security staff at the Israel airports, Haaretz has reported.
The charter subsidiary of El Al Israel Airlines has been reportedly waiting "for months" for the state security approval but failed to receive it in time to start selling seats to tour operators.
"For a variety of reasons we haven’t received until today the approvals we asked for, which has created a problematic situation. At this late stage, we can’t sell the seats we have to travel agents and fliers. Under the circumstances, we are being forced at this stage to pull back from our plan to operate flights to Ibiza and Corsica," CEO Michael Strassburger has written to Moti Ilani, El Al's head of security who is also responsible for security at all other Israeli carriers at airports abroad.
Earlier, Israir (6H, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) had been forced to cancel its planned flights out of Haifa to Larnaca because of a lack of security staff at Haifa's airport.
The shortage has persisted for some time and has now been aggravated following a budget dispute between El Al, whose security department provides coverage to all Israeli carriers flying abroad, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which funds these security services at foreign airports. Although the government has reached an agreement in principle with the powerful labour union Histadrut regarding salary increases for Israeli security agents working abroad, its implementation was stalled as the MFA has said it does not have funds to pay for the salary raise.
The crisis is not affecting international carriers flying to Israel, including European airlines which benefit from the Open Skies agreement signed in 2013. Israeli carriers have warned that the stalemate puts them at a competitive disadvantage against foreign competitors.
