The Competition Commissioner announced today (Monday) to El Al that she intends, subject to a hearing, to impose a financial sanction on it in the amount of 109,623,501 shekels.
At the same time, personal sanctions are being considered against two company officers, in amounts ranging from 449,000 to 548,000 shekels each.
According to the Competition Authority's notice sent today to El Al and its officers, its investigation shows that El Al refused to grant Arkia access services to hangars for aircraft maintenance, despite a multi-year agreement between the companies - under which Arkia leases the hangars owned by El Al.
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According to the findings, starting in August 2024, during the 'Iron Swords' War, El Al began to consistently refuse Arkia's requests to rent the hangars to handle its aircraft, regardless of their availability.
The policy was called by El Al a "gentle refusal," in which reasons were given that were determined by the authority to be insufficient, while creating a representation that there had been no change in the willingness to comply with the agreement.
The Authority noted that El Al has a monopoly in the hangar market for handling passenger aircraft in Israel, and also operates in a large number of international destinations where it competes with Arkia.
During the war, when many foreign airlines reduced their operations in Israel, Israeli companies were the main factor competing with El Al.
According to the authority, "the violation occurred during the war, when many foreign airlines stopped operating in Israel for periods, and the almost sole damage to El Al came from Israeli airlines, including Arkia. El Al's conduct could have harmed Arkia's competitiveness, and exposed it to economic, safety and image risks.".
The Competition Commissioner added that "a possible impairment of Arkia's ability to handle malfunctions and perform the necessary inspections and treatments on its aircraft could have led to cancellations or significant delays in Arkia flights, and beyond the direct harm to the flying public, this could have exposed Arkia to lawsuits and image risk, thereby harming its competitive ability.".
It was also claimed that the costs of alternative solutions could have been passed on to consumers or even resulted in the withdrawal of aircraft from service, and in this case, also harming the availability of aircraft in the absence of an alternative solution.
The Authority believes that in its conduct, El Al unreasonablely refused to provide a monopoly service and abused its position, contrary to the provisions of the Economic Competition Law.
As part of the hearing, El Al and the officers will be given the opportunity to present their arguments to the Competition Commissioner - before a final decision is made.
