The Ministry of Finance estimates the cost of the strike that took place today (Thursday) at Ben Gurion Airport at approximately 30 million shekels.
According to a report this evening (Thursday) in 'Kan News', the calculation consists of the loss of fees and commissions not received following flight cancellations, the loss of product following the cancellation of vacation days for Israelis, delays in the arrival of goods by air, and a long list of additional components.
However, the greatest damage is not financial, but rather the damage to Israel's reputation among airlines: the prices of flights to and from Israel are very high, due in part to the many flight cancellations during the three years of the war and the fact that many airlines have not yet resumed their flights to Israel.
An event like the chaos that took place at the airport today pushes foreign companies out of Israel, and increases the already high prices.
According to senior officials at the Airports Authority in a conversation with News 12, the sanctions that led to chaos at Ben-Gurion Airport were intended to take place the day before in order to disrupt the flight of Transportation Minister Miri Regev.
According to the same sources, workers' committee chairman Pinchas Idan decided to avoid disrupting the minister's flight to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, on the original date, following the joint tour she conducted at Ben Gurion Airport alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Idan believed that embarrassing the Prime Minister under these circumstances would be an excessive step.
However, according to the same officials, instructions were given to disrupt the transportation of luggage on the minister's flight. In practice, only a minor delay was recorded, and the flight departed as scheduled.
