Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Minister wants flights home for Israelis
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz asks airlines to do all they can to bring back Israelis stranded in Europe due to volcanic ash cloud
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Monday ordered Israeli airlines to do everything in their power in order to retrieve the thousands of Israelis stranded in Europe due to an ash cloud caused by a recent volcanic eruption in Iceland.
An emergency meeting held at the Transportation Ministry concluded that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would temporarily allow all airlines to fly to any destination in Europe from which flights to Israel are allowed.
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"I will do anything I can to get all the Israelis back home," Katz said. "The ministry continues to follow closely the development of the volcanic ash cloud through the Israeli Meteorological Service and the CAA."
The meeting followed a decision to renew flights at several European airports, despite the fact that many of the flights leaving the continent were still canceled. EU statistics show that just 5,000 of 24,000 planned flights took off Sunday.
The US fears the cloud may reach its eastern shores soon. In addition, Germany's Transportation Ministry announced it would conduct tests to measure the amount of volcanic ash still remaining in its atmosphere in order to decide whether to reopen airports.
In all, 300 flights to and from Ben Gurion International Airport have been canceled, and around 48,000 people traveling between Israel and Europe have remained stranded so far. Fifty of these flights were canceled Monday, stranding 8,000 people.
The meeting also hosted a discussion on whether the cloud was likely to reach Israel, a possibility most ministry officials consider remote. They said the matter would likely be cleared up by Wednesday. In any case, the officials said, Israeli airline companies had already suffered significant losses.
