Apr 22, 2013
El Al strike sends the wrong message
I am a free-market kind of guy, and I firmly believe that the "Open Skies" deal, which effectively breaks the near monopoly of the Israeli airline companies on the airspace will end up being good for the consumer, in the way of forcing the airlines to provide better service, and forcing them to sell tickets at more competitive prices.
I feel bad that potentially employees will need to be laid off in the process, but I do not think that making the consumer pay more money to protect the interests of El Al is the way to go. They will need to be creative in finding ways to be profitable.
Even now, they should really be more creative in finding ways to protest the decision. Striking now only reinforces in the public mind the necessity of the move. For far too long El Al has held the Israeli consumer by the short hairs, and striking now at this juncture just emphasizes that and reminds everyone of that. Few people are going to have mercy on El Al with this stark reminder that whenever they get upset about one thing or another they can shut down the country and inconvenience tens of thousands of people in an instant.
I also hope that people who are affected by the strike, loss of business due to inability to travel, loss of money spent on vacations, people who are in distressful situations - travelling for medical care or bereavement issues, will all sue El Al in some sort of class-action suit or something to punish them for this behavior...
I feel bad that potentially employees will need to be laid off in the process, but I do not think that making the consumer pay more money to protect the interests of El Al is the way to go. They will need to be creative in finding ways to be profitable.
Even now, they should really be more creative in finding ways to protest the decision. Striking now only reinforces in the public mind the necessity of the move. For far too long El Al has held the Israeli consumer by the short hairs, and striking now at this juncture just emphasizes that and reminds everyone of that. Few people are going to have mercy on El Al with this stark reminder that whenever they get upset about one thing or another they can shut down the country and inconvenience tens of thousands of people in an instant.
I also hope that people who are affected by the strike, loss of business due to inability to travel, loss of money spent on vacations, people who are in distressful situations - travelling for medical care or bereavement issues, will all sue El Al in some sort of class-action suit or something to punish them for this behavior...
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In agreement.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this lesson will teach all sectors of Israeli society that there is a concept called "the National Good" & not every change in law needs to be cried & screamed over.
El Al is giving a bonus ticket to everyone who was affected. It is still unclear if the national good, and promised tourist influx and other benefits are real. There is We all know that there already is good competition out of Israel and there is no monopoly. El Al has a unique problem of not having a hub to build on like all other airlines. There are very few people transfering to other flights at TLV but now there is talk of El Al able to do something like this in Europe, I guess something like they already do in Spain by accepting flyers from other airlines to follow on into Israel.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, this is in fact not anything 'good' that the government is initiating, but rather regulations that the EU is forcing on us anyway. Trying to repackage it as a Likud win, is merely an attempt to show that it is doing more for the middle class then Lapid is.