Tel Aviv – El Al continues to cancel and postpone flights as its labor dispute with the pilot’s committee remains unsolved.
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On Sunday nine flights were cancelled. These include flights to NY, Boston and Moscow, and to and from London. The flights were cancelled after pilots called in sick, and claimed they were unable to fly.
The pilots’ union has been striking intermittently for several months, following the breakdown of negotiations with management.
The pilots claim that elderly pilots close to retirement age are deliberately grounded by El Al, as a cost cutting measure. A large part of their salaries are for overtime, so when their flight schedules are significantly reduced, their salaries shrink by more than 50%.
El Al claims that the reduction in senior pilots’ flying hours is not an attempt to save money, but an unavoidable consequence of the agreement it signed about a year ago with the US civil aviation authorities.
US regulations prohibit pilots over 65 from flying commercial aircraft in American airspace. Israeli regulations allow pilots to fly until age 67, the retirement age. As a result, the airline has been forced to reduce the flying schedules of pilots above age 65.
It is not clear whether these pilots can perform their duties to non American destinations such as Europe, Africa and the Far East.
All attempts to get a response from El Al went unanswered.