All about Lowcost/AP, Reuters, Getty Images, Shutterstock
EasyJet, the first low cost company that started operating in Israel about 15 years ago, announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it has suspended its operations in Israel until October 27, 2024, i.e. for the next six months. Ask where exactly they came up with this date and the answer: it's the end of the summer season in Europe and you can prepare for the fall/winter season.
Ask if this date is final, and I am not ready to sign it. You will get the explanation later. But first a little history. EasyJet began operating in Israel in 2009 and was the pioneer among the low cost companies, which have long been considered "low service" companies, because sometimes the prices of its flights and those of the other companies (Visair and Ryanair) are not significantly cheaper than those of the traditional airlines. This is if you also calculate the selection of a seat, a suitcase and various other "punishments" that you receive, if you do all the actions of ordering a suitcase at the airport instead of at the time of booking.
During the 15 years of the company's activity, it has flown (as of the end of March this year) 6,859,431 passengers (according to the reports of the Airports Authority) on routes to and from Israel. This is when most of the passengers are Israelis who, thanks to her and the other Lowcost companies, were able to fulfill their dream of vacationing abroad, especially if they booked tickets well in advance, were content with traveling with a backpack or "trolley" and brought sandwiches from home.
The company's entry into Israel and growth The large number of destinations to which it flies, caused competition with the old airlines. The result - the market share of easyJet, as well as Visier and Ryanair on routes to destinations in Europe, some of which were not known to the Israeli public, grew, while at the same time the market share of the Elel company continued to shrink. EasyJet's activity was so great that already in 2014 and 2016 it was in third place among all the companies operating at Ben Gurion Airport and in 2018 and 2019 it flew over a million passengers (1,014,987 in 2018 and 1,172,071 in 2019) .
We will, of course, forget and rush to order again
Those who followed her and the other companies' announcements, and saw when they were doing special promotions, could purchase plane tickets at a price slightly higher than the price of the port tax, or in other words, at floor prices. The company made the money from the sale of seats, the cost of delivering a suitcase, the cost of registering for a flight at the airport, cancellations, changes and of course from those who did not jump on the early promotions and paid a lot of money for tickets at the last minute.
If it is so good and the company is making money on the route to and from Israel, you will ask why the company decided to cancel the flights to Israel until the end of October, and why not for the next week or two. Here, of course, is the real story as I see it: the company sold hundreds of thousands of flight tickets for the summer at discounted prices, so much so that it should not operate the flights at these prices, or in other words, there is a reasonable chance that it could lose money on every flight that takes off at these prices .
So what do we do: cancel the flights, return the plane tickets we purchased (some of them for 29 or 100 euros) and remove Israel from the company's sales website. In a few days, or weeks, when the company "sees" that the situation in the Middle East has calmed down, they will return here but with much higher prices for the same dates we purchased discounted tickets. We, of course, will forget the exercise they did and rush to order again. Because we are in a pressure cooker and must go abroad to fill the batteries.
Shame, shame shame
What EasyJet did yesterday in its announcement is nothing more than a scandal, and it is a shame that there is no regulator in Israel to punish it, as well as other companies that do the same exercises. Beyond the fact that it "knocked", yes that's the word, the vacation for tens of thousands of Israelis, including the Passover vacation, it is very likely that most of the customers also purchased hotels abroad (and no one repaired them if they booked non-cancelable rooms). In addition, no Few clients have booked concerts abroad and it is likely that they will not find anyone to buy the tickets from them, and of course there is no one to compensate all the clients for what can definitely be defined as heartache. How will you explain to the children that they can see the Ben Gurion port from the outside, because the chance of finding an alternative flight at a reasonable price tends to zero.
Yes. It must be said that EasyJet is not alone, but this does not comfort any passenger or any child who will stay in Israel for Passover, after already fantasizing about a water park on Lake Garda, about EuroDisney in Paris and musicals in London along with many other attractions in the destinations to which the company flies. In the spirit of these days, I can sum up in three words what the company did to customers in Israel:
shame, shame, shame.