Approximately 50% of El Al's passengers from the U.S. are postponing their trips to Israel, taking advantage of a policy allowing them to rebook without penalty.
The Israeli airline is maintaining its regular flight schedules from the U.S. to Israel, but due to the Israel-Gaza conflict, El Al is allowing anyone scheduled to fly through July 22 to rebook without penalty within six months. If the fare rises, passengers would have to pay the difference.
Israel Tourism Commissioner Haim Gutin said that the high rate of cancellations was because of the no-fee cancellation policy, and that other airlines were not experiencing such high rates of cancellations or postponements.
“Delta is saying that only 500 hundred people have canceled in total, and they are not even canceling, they are postponing,” he said. “And there is no impact for flights in the fall.”
Gutin said there are more than 100,000 tourists currently in Israel, “continuing with life and travel plans as usual.” He added that there have been few cancellations from tour operators.
Richard Krieger, president of tour operator IsramWorld, said, “Thankfully, we have witnessed very few individual cancellations and no cancellations with regards to groups … [and] we have not seen a slowdown in inquiries for future travel.”
Rafi Baeri, vice president of marketing and sales for Israel-based Dan Hotels, said there have been few cancellations but that there has been a decline in new reservations.
“Most of our guests staying in our four Jerusalem hotels and three Tel Aviv properties are business- and leisure-focused travelers who simply changed their reservations to quieter parts of the country away from conflict zones, including Haifa, Caesarea and even the resort town of Eilat,” he said.
“The real problem we are facing today is the lack of new reservations in the short term, specifically the months of July and August,” Baeri said. “We do hope that tension will be reduced by this weekend so that the many tourists due to arrive for their August summer holidays will stick to their plans. While it is difficult to grasp, life in Israel continues in a tranquil and normal way. Restaurants and nightlife spots are packed, beaches are buzzing with tourists and travelers alike, and shopping districts are full."
Olivia Jean, 17, of Brookline, Mass., is glad she didn’t cancel her trip Israel, where she landed on July 11.
“I’ve felt safe everywhere I've been,” she said. She heard Israel’s missile-defense system in action while on the beach in Tel Aviv.
“We heard the boom from the Iron Dome rocket intercepting the Hamas rocket, people looked up and took pictures of the cloud, then proceeded as normal," she said.
Jean added that the Israelis have “helped me feel safe in that I know what to do if there is a siren. I don't feel like it is something to cancel a trip over. I've still seen everything I want to see. I can still enjoy time on the beach and shopping.”
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Michelle Baran contributed to this report.