Thousands of travelers and passengers flying to and from Ben Gurion International Airport this weekend just got a last minute reprieve, as the workers’ committee called off a planned strike.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon intervened to broker an agreement on Thursday evening to stave off the closure, meeting with the Israel Airports Authority worker committee, along with Histadrut labor federation. Employees were planning to walk-out in protest of a Interior Ministry decision to allow local municipalities to charge the airport property taxes.
“I want to prevent the unnecessary suffering of passengers flying over the weekend and the hit to the economy,” Kahlon, who is head of the center-right Kulanu party, said in a statement.
Details of the agreement to postpone the strike have yet to be published and it is unclear if the government backtracked on its property taxes motion.
The strike would have taken place from Friday evening to Saturday night, grounding European planes while permitting trans-Atlantic flights to land. Some 25,500 passengers on 160 flights were scheduled to depart and land during that time frame.
Some airlines had canceled flights in anticipation of the strike — including Royal Jordanian and Air Sinai, according to Ynet news site — and it is unclear whether they will be rescheduled.
Given that Ben-Gurion is Israel’s predominant gateway to the world – as Israel’s land borders with Jordan and Egypt are less frequently used – any unexpected closures reverberate throughout the Jewish state. More than 90% of all incoming and outgoing passengers transit through the airport.
The strike would have affected tourist operators, along with business travel. Losses from even a short, 24-hour closure can tally in the millions of shekels.
Employees threatened to strike out of fear that municipal property taxes levied on the airport would significantly cut its revenue, leading to wage cuts or layoffs. The average airport employee earns about two-and-half times the average national wage, or NIS 26,100 ($7,450) monthly, according to The Marker.
Ben-Gurion operates 364 days a year, barring the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The airport has previously been shuttered for short strikes, along with closures during conflict. During the 2014 Gaza war, the American Federal Aviation Administration suspended flights, triggering a two-day de facto international flight ban.
In 2016, 17.5 million passengers passed through the airport, an 11% increase from the previous year.
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-tanks-fire-on-Gaza-after-mortar-attack-515680
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