Officials report that the American Federal Aviation Administration following an inspection in Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport plan to recommend lowering the international airport’s rating due to significant safety deficiencies.
This would place Israeli flights on a monitored list, which translates to limiting the airlines to current flights, eliminating any opportunity to add flight routes or make changes. Such a reality will have significant economic realities on airlines.
One must bear in mind that the shortcomings in the airport are not just according to the FAA, but the Israeli internal investigation headed by retired air force commander Amos Lapidot in 2007 stated the airport’s safety realities was “catastrophic”.
The ranking, if downgraded, would place Israel on in the same ranking with countries like Honduras, Indonesia, Ukraine, Haiti and Bulgaria.
In essence, the downgraded ranking is in line with the Lapidot Committee, and unfortunately, little if nothing has been done to improve the situation since the 2007 report. Prior to the inspection, Israel’s ranking was one, but it may now be downgraded to two.
The move may also result in delays as additional inspections of El Al flights may be conducted in the United States.
YWN has reported on mid-air near-misses involving flights in Ben-Gurion and the FAA report states among other things that the control tower is situated in such a way that air traffic controllers do not have a view of all runways.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
Would this prevent a possible reestablishment of service by a “discount” carrier between North America and Eretz Yisrael. While there are some serving Tel Aviv, they fly only to Europe, and the “normal” carriers such as El Al can be a expensive.
Derech Ha’teva…..
Its about time the Izzy govt take this seriously. We constantly hear about “near misses” at TLV. A “near miss” is a NEAR HIT!
Maybe it will be possible to go to artzeinu hakedosha by ship, like in the old days?!
of late past 3 weeks since sukkos those who have traveled EL-AL are aware of delays of up to 3 hours
this past monday nights jfk 1150pm flt 008 took off early tuesday with everyone being put up in the jfk ramada hotel w/o being told the reason
for the delay “welcome TO ISRAEL” starts when flying ELAL
stick with CONTINENTAL or DELTA the airlines who appreciate your business and show it
EL-AL’S attitude is theyre doing you a favor by letting you fly with them
typical ISRAELI ATTIDUDE
untill they get their act together realizing that they are in a service industry and must offer at least a minimum degree of service their flight loads will keep on decrease
signed someone very familiar with el-al for over 30 years
Are the saftey concerns cited by the FAA terrorist related or just congestion related?
And how terrorist safe is the new airport?
#4 you are 30 years behind the times. Over the past decade El Al has dramatically improved their service and now is comparable to Continental and Delta. This from someone who flys regularly and takes whichever airline is most convenient.
#4 and #6: the issue is not El Al but the Israeli Airport. It affect all airlines equally.
This is not related to El Al (stands for: Every Landing Always Late). This is related to TLV Airport.
And, yes, the Israel ‘experiance’ begins with booking your flight on El Al and the (lo dati) Israeli attitude.