BELAAZ INTERVIEW: ‘We Are Proud Not to Fly on Shabbos’: El Al’s VP on Running a Jewish Airline Through a War

As rockets fell on Israel and airlines around the world suspended flights to Tel Aviv, El Al faced a question no other carrier has ever had to answer in wartime: how do we keep Shabbos? Shlomi Zafrani, El Al’s Vice President of Commerce and Aviation Relations, says the airline is “very proud not to fly and not to work during Shabbat.”

In an exclusive interview with Belaaz, Zafrani also described the race to get frum travelers home before Pesach, the challenge of koshering an entire fleet mid-war, and a $1.5 billion Boeing deal that signals where El Al is headed next.

“This is part of the implementation of our long-term strategic plan,” Zafrani told Belaaz. “The core of it is to expand our fleet size, while focusing both on long-haul destinations with the wide-body fleet and shorter destinations with the narrow-body fleet.”

El Al signed an expansion of its existing Boeing agreement, approving options for six additional Dreamliner aircraft on top of the three already contracted, bringing the total addition to nine new planes. Deliveries are set to begin at the end of this year.

“This expansion will allow us to increase the number of flights to current destinations while focusing on the US, and to open new routes for long-haul destinations – both to America and to Asia,” Zafrani said. “The plan is to keep increasing the network together with the fleet.”

FLYING THROUGH FIRE

The announcement comes on the heels of one of the most operationally demanding periods in El Al’s history. As Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Israel, El Al found itself trying to maintain commercial aviation in an active war zone – with pilots and mechanics simultaneously called up for reserve military duty.

“Some of our pilots and mechanics took part in the attack on Iran,” Zafrani said. “It’s very, very complicated to operate commercial aviation under these circumstances.”

Zafrani revealed that the airline had spent months since June quietly preparing for exactly this scenario. “We are an Israeli airline. We knew that at certain points, something will happen – it could take a few months, it could take years. We knew nothing in advance. We were just getting ready for it, and luckily we were ready on time.”

Operations were coordinated in real time with the Israeli Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Defense, and the Israeli Air Force. Because Israel’s missile defense systems provide approximately ten minutes of advance warning before an incoming rocket hits, El Al was able to keep aircraft and passengers protected – limiting flights to one or two per hour to minimize risk.

“Safety is top priority. If safety says it’s not safe to fly, then we shut down – we suspend operations. The decision is easy. The implementation and the implications for customers are very hard. But this is how we acted,” Zafrani said.

He and his team spent much of the war period working out of a bunker at Ben Gurion Airport, putting in roughly 18-hour days while managing their own personal stress about families at home under rocket fire.

“Each one of El Al’s 6,000 employees globally was under personal pressure – at home, with families, with kids, with sirens going on and off. And yet we had the expectation from ourselves not to shut down, to keep being there for the customers, to keep operations at the maximum level we were permitted,” he said. “Everyone worked from their soul, their belief, their commitment. I don’t think other European airlines can say the same.”

ROCKETS HIT BEN GURION – AND MISSED EL AL PLANES

In one of the most dramatic moments of the war, a rocket struck the Ben Gurion Airport complex and hit three private aircraft. El Al planes in the vicinity were untouched. A second strike hit the employee parking lot at the airport shortly after – and again, no El Al employees were injured. Neither incident was widely publicized in the United States.

Zafrani called the entire wartime operating period a reflection of something larger than logistics.

“You can fly 15, 20, 50 flights a day under rocket fire without any injuries to customers or crew – it’s unbelievable, really,” he said. “Look at Ukraine. Since that war began, not a single commercial flight has departed from Ukraine. We flew during active wartime, with very high levels of rocket fire, and everyone was kept protected. That’s unbelievable.”

CAPPED PRICES AND A PESACH RESCUE MISSION

As the war disrupted flight schedules, El Al implemented what Zafrani described as an industry-first: a hard price cap on both coach and premium cabin tickets, regardless of demand.

“In aviation, as a flight gets fuller and you get closer to departure, prices go to higher levels – that’s normal, that’s how every airline globally works. What we decided to do differently is cap the prices in coach and in premium cabin as well. We do not allow prices to go high, even if the demand is fully there,” he said. “I don’t think any other airline has ever used this method.”

The cap has been implemented through the end of August, with El Al considering extending it through the end of the summer season. The downside, Zafrani acknowledged, is that affordable fares drive stronger demand, causing flights to fill faster than in normal times.

For El Al’s largest customer base – American travelers, including a significant portion from the frum community – the airline ran a massive Pesach repatriation operation. Working with US travel agencies, its call center, and partner airline Delta, El Al secured connecting capacity through Europe for passengers who could not get direct flights from Tel Aviv in time for the holiday.

“We protected capacity on Tel Aviv-Europe flights and connected with our partners, especially Delta from Europe to New York, to expand the number of people we were able to carry before Pesach,” Zafrani said. “Many, many of them were Charedi – yeshiva guys and Bais Yaakov girls who were planning to travel home for Pesach and whose flights were canceled.”
El Al also partnered with the US Embassy in Israel and the State Department in Washington, directly contacting every stranded American citizen who filled out an online form the airline published during the crisis.

SHABBOS AND KASHRUS

El Al is the only commercial airline in the world that does not fly on Shabbos – a policy that drew public criticism in Israel during the war, when some argued the airline should suspend the practice to maximize repatriation capacity. Zafrani was unapologetic.

“We are very proud not to fly and not to work during Shabbat. Obviously it brings a lot of challenges – we take six days a week and make sure we are flying at the pace of seven. Everything is very, very tight,” he said. “We kept our customers with solutions, just within the framework we operate under.”

When flights are delayed and at risk of being airborne over Shabbos, El Al has a network of alternative airports with pre-arranged accommodations, Chabad contacts, and complete kosher meal service ready to go. Athens, he noted, is the most frequently used. “If a significant event occurs and we cannot fix it, it will be solved after Shabbat. We are standing behind our beliefs, and this is part of it.”

On the kosher food front, El Al operates its own catering kitchens at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and at its New York base – the latter run by Bornstein Caterers. At other global destinations, the airline opens dedicated kosher preparation facilities alongside local caterers, with mashgichim certifying every item.

“We come in, and we teach local staff what it means to make kosher food,” Zafrani said. “We will never serve anything that is not kosher. The same applies in every lounge we use globally – either El Al provides its kosher food to the lounge directly, or we cooperate with the third-party lounge operator on what will be served with the right certificates.”

For Pesach, the challenge was compounded by wartime restrictions. Ben Gurion Airport could not accommodate the long-term ground time normally used to kosher the entire fleet before the holiday. El Al performed the koshering process across locations in Israel, Europe, and the United States.

“It was extremely challenging, but we were able to cover the entire fleet on time for Pesach,” Zafrani said.

WHAT COMES NEXT

With a Lebanon ceasefire now in place, El Al is moving quickly to restore full operations. Zafrani says that by early May, the airline expects to return to its full pre-war schedule – approximately 900 flights per week between Tel Aviv and the United States for the summer season. Flights to Boston resume next week.
“We are already covering all the destinations we planned to operate, and the number of flights is almost back to 100 percent,” he said. “We are recovering intensively and trying to make sure we are fulfilling the demand – while other carriers still haven’t resumed flying to Tel Aviv.”

The Tel Aviv–New York route, Zafrani said, remains the single most strategically important market for El Al – not necessarily in raw passenger volume, but in the airline’s identity and mission.

“It has always been the most important market for El Al. Always has been, always will be,” he said. “We will not go backwards from here.”