A letter to El Al’s new proprietor, Eli Rozenberg

How many people bear in mind our first El Al flight, with impolite flight attendants, Israelis strolling the aisles as if the seats assigned didn’t belong to them and ultra-Orthodox passengers haranguing feminine fliers to maneuver their seats? Conversely, the Zionist zeal I felt when the El Al aircraft landed at Lod Airport with everybody on the aircraft applauding nonetheless brings a large smile to my face.

Eli, youth has its benefits, so whereas your dad might have endured years of shoddy tools, boastful pilots grounding the airline, you haven’t skilled the many years of ineptitude that has come to signify El Al. Horrific administration, poor labor relations, poor on-time performances and tools that existed lengthy earlier than you had been born led many a frequent flier to keep away from flying El Al. 

However a few years in the past, sanity got here into El Al. Sure, it nonetheless had a majority of staff with lifetime jobs producing nothing of worth, however a core group of devoted airline professionals started turning El Al round.

Their frequent flyer program improved, new routes had been open and deliberate, and way more importantly, Boeing created a 787 Dreamliner that El Al lapped up like cats do with a bowl of milk. Now having an plane they may very well be pleased with, now having three distinct sorts if service, Financial system, Premium & Enterprise class, El Al might last compete on the world map. 

Are you able to think about me having to promote a household to Toronto solely two years in the past? The aircraft had a pull-down display screen the place one film was proven. There have been ashtrays within the seat rests, and whereas smoking was banned on all El Al flights, the décor was undoubtedly 1970s. My enterprise clientele was flying 747s in a seat configuration from the 1980s till the Dreamliners got here in the marketplace.

By no means being a believer of every thing I learn within the papers, I’ll take with a grain of salt your feedback on two of your objectives for El Al: punctuality and upgrading meals companies. Now I hope that is complete hogwash. I discover it onerous to take care of that in gentle of every thing that has occurred, the one two gadgets you talked about had been getting the planes to their locations on time and bettering what passengers nosh.

I’m positive you’ve taken dozens of El Al flights in your practically three many years. I’ve bought over 10,000 El Al flights in my profession, so let me clue you in on what peeves the flying public earlier than proffering recommendation on El AL on the bottom. 

Earlier than you and I existed, El Al was jokingly often called Each Touchdown At all times Late. Fairly true and even pre-COVID-19, El Al’s on time efficiency at all times ranked on the backside. It is a matter. I’d like to see these numbers improved however many of the journey professionals notice that delays can happen. We don’t plan an necessary enterprise assembly 30 minutes after a flight is scheduled to land, and we actually don’t guide a connecting flight with no affordable time to make the connection.

IF YOU WANT a greater purpose, intention for dealing with late arrivals or canceled flights. Delta canceled her scheduled flight for the eve of Rosh Hashanah this yr. Sure, a complete aircraft stuffed with Israelis from JFK on Wednesday night time, September 16, coming in for Rosh Hashanah was scrapped as a result of tools points. Each single passenger was moved to a different airline. It was not straightforward and am positive tempers had been frayed however after a couple of hours all of the passengers had been moved.

Previously, Eli, El Al rebooked passengers on the subsequent out there flight on El Al even when it was days away from the unique flight. Through the years, attempting to get El Al to maneuver a shopper to a different airline was a significant chore, needing to justify that mentioned passenger truly wished to fly on mentioned date and time and never when El Al deemed it prudent. El Al constructed its community to North America utilizing different airways as their associate for onward connections. Woe to the passenger who missed the connection, and El Al coolly knowledgeable the passenger that the connecting airline should rebook him and never the unique ticket airline.

Your different reported purpose was upgrading meals service. Severely? Please inform me that was pretend information. The one fixed on El Al from my passengers over time has been the meals. Not rave opinions, and no one has ever instructed me it reminded him of the steak he bought at Mike’s Bistro. Sure, by providing quite a lot of kosher meals, El Al runs the chance {that a} last-minute reserving might not have a glatt kosher meal out there, and the passenger almost definitely will flip up the nostril with a daily kosher meal, however that’s it. Too be trustworthy, most individuals don’t fly to eat. They know airline meals is at greatest tolerable they usually are available with very low expectations.

Onboard passengers need comfy seats, clear restrooms, a vibrant leisure community and a well mannered crew. El Al should persuade the flying public when she resumes flights to New York, London and Paris in mid-October that each attainable cleansing and disinfectant issue has been taken under consideration. How will El Al sanitize her planes? 

The flying public needs truthful and affordable airfares. The competitors is brutal, and restoration from COVID-19 to 2019 ranges will nonetheless take months if not years. Costs to most locations have plummeted as a lot as 20%, and in Israel, new peace agreements might save prices for El Al when flying to the East, however Emirates and Etihad have sterling reputations within the aviation trade, and haven’t any issues decreasing their fares to beat new locations.

Eli, these are the simple objectives and really El Al has a number of professionals who grasped the difficulty final yr and commenced making inroads. Sure, they had been prodded by so many airways coming into Israel, and El Al misplaced her monopoly to each India and China, which prompted a better fall in income.

YOUR CHALLENGE, my buddy, is the overwhelming majority of these working in El Al. Our socialist labor system can be alien to somebody coming from a capitalist background. In a yeshiva you study via day by day lectures in addition to in examine pairs. Your thoughts is skilled to query, to parry forwards and backwards with respectable dialogue. In El Al, dialogue is a phrase hardly ever used. 

Sure, there are day by day briefings, objectives are set, targets are outlined, however ultimately too lots of the tenured staff do no matter they need, figuring out they will barely be disciplined not to mention be terminated. Making one’s benchmark might result in a better pay day, however there are sufficient whistles and bells constructed into their contracts that promised rewards hardly ever does the trick. One would suppose that pleasure of the airline, creating one thing for the ages, and serving the paying public would encourage the typical El Al employee. You’d be fallacious.

El Al for years has at all times been a terrific marketer. Every time there’s a new route or aircraft, a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} are spent on selling it. Most of Israel knew that El Al was flying to Japan earlier than the Japanese. Each attainable type of media was utilized in getting the message throughout. 

Visits to workplace and industrial accounts heralded greater than six months upfront El Al’s latest vacation spot to Asia. All for naught in fact, cash poured down the drain, however the execution was top quality. When the Dreamliner was offered in Israel, it was like a Hollywood manufacturing, really an epic occasion. 

In truth, a lot was spent on advertising that there was zero coordination with income administration which outpriced what El Al’s rivals had been charging for a similar aircraft to similar locations. Maybe extra of that large market price range might have been spent on reductions on the precise aircraft fare?

El Al’s greatest disadvantage on the bottom that includes the general public is their buyer relations division. For years, the shortage of a devoted e mail crew meant anybody with a criticism would spend prolonged wait occasions attempting to even get a service supplier on the telephone, and normally was instructed there was nothing may very well be achieved. Reply time pre-COVID-19 might take weeks, and too typically the reply is not any. 

Surprisingly I do know the El Al employees there and they’re all fantastic caring folks. It appears the issues lies within the directions they obtain from senior administration that the majority preliminary requests for compensation needs to be denied. Upon enchantment, motive does enter the equation.

It’s unknown what sort of a employees you’re going to inherit. Will it’s one which understands COVID-19 means throwing every thing that had been achieved and beginning throughout? Or one which thinks it labored up to now (which it didn’t) so why attempt something new?

El Al’s energy is North America and Asia. Europe is overcrowded with low-cost carriers, and whereas politically it have to be served, that shouldn’t be the main target in 2021. El Al has the tools and El Al has many of the routes wanted. Its greatest legal responsibility and your problem are its staff. Only a few younger folks flocked to jobs in El Al. Outsiders had been at all times shunned at El Al.

The author is the CEO of Ziontours, Jerusalem. For questions and feedback e mail him at [email protected].