Itongadol.- More than a month after El Al sent a furious letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complaining that Turkey was monopolizing the highly lucrative route between Israel and Turkey by banning Israeli airlines, Jerusalem has done nothing to change the outrageous situation, the airline’s CEO told The Times of Israel. Failure to tackle the issue could prove so costly as to bring down El Al, he said.
Since the Prime Minister’s Office and the Transportation Ministry seem unwilling, for political reasons, to challenge the Turks on their refusal to accommodate Israel’s special security requirements, effectively preventing Israeli airlines from landing in their country, El Al is now pinning its hopes on Avigdor Liberman, Elyezer Shkedy said. Israel’s newly returned foreign minister is known not to shy away from controversial issues and has spoken out frequently in the past against the current government in Ankara.
“What’s happening now between Israel and Turkey is unacceptable,” El Al’s CEO and president Shkedy, a former commander of the Israel Air Force, said in an interview. “This is something I can’t understand, honestly. I can’t understand how the leaders of the State of Israel allow this situation to continue.”
Shkedy refused to estimate how much the crisis was costing El Al, but described it as a financial “disaster” that could bring down the company. The government in Jerusalem would surely not want to see “Israeli aviation crash because of this,” he added, but this scenario is “a real possibility.”