The Pesach holiday is behind us, and many people are already planning their overseas summer vacation. Charter flights are known to be a cheap and accessible option, even at the last minute, and many Israelis tend to choose a package deal that includes a hotel or a club with a charter flight. This accessible option often invites trouble.
Charter flights were conceived as a seasonal solution for reinforcing regular flights or as an option for reaching destinations outside the route of the regular flights, to the islands of Kos and Rhodes for example. The traffic to Antalya, Turkey also began that way. The charter companies cover a wide range of destinations - Turkey, the Greek isles, destinations in Bulgaria, and the top European cities such as London, Paris, Prague and Budapest, Barcelona, Milan, Rome et al.
The destinations are decided on by a group of leading wholesalers, including Flying Carpet, Unital, which is part of the Israir Group, Holiday Lines (Kavei Hufsha), Eshet Tours, Kishrei Teufa, Easy Travel and the International Tourism Center. The number of flights per season is decided according to a certain forecast by the wholesalers, who occasionally add or subtract flights during the season itself based on the market situation. However, in recent years many charter flights operate all year long, at reduced frequency.
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As opposed to charter flights, which are based on the market situation, the regular flights of airlines such as El Al and Lufthansa operate according to a schedule set in advance at the beginning of the year. The airlines are responsible for marketing the flights, setting the prices and selling the seats through travel agents.
Charter flights, on the other hand, are purchased by the wholesalers and paid for in advance. Occasionally several wholesalers share one plane, with each wholesaler purchasing a percentage of the seats on the plane. There are also wholesale firms that buy groups of seats on regular airlines, and then they are required to pay for them as for charter flights - in advance. The advantage to the consumer in purchasing such a ticket is far greater flexibility, even if not necessarily a lower price.
The price changes twice a day
A wholesaler who is unable to sell the seats he has purchased loses out. On the other hand, if the wholesaler did not succeed in selling some of the seats on a charter flight, he can cancel the entire flight. Not only can the flight be canceled at the last moment - the prices of charter flights change from one moment to the next. Ami Cohen, the CEO of Holiday Lines, says that the prices change once or twice a day, and do not necessarily go down. "In recent years, the closer we came to the 'last minute' the higher the price became," he says.
The charter airlines' planes are likely to make four or five trips a day to nearby destinations such as Turkey and the Mediterranean. Antalya, for example, is a one-hour flight from Israel. If there is demand, they increase the number of flights. The airlines have a large number of planes, and for the most part a plane can be found to make the trip.
The charter wholesalers use two types of charter flights - flying with Israeli airlines and with foreign airlines.
The Israeli airlines operating charter flights are Israir, Arkia and Sun D'Or, which is owned by El Al. Charter flights on Israeli airlines cost the traveler much more in dollars than do those on foreign airlines, and the explanation, according to the Israeli airlines, is the security expenditures.
Delays in flights and unpleasant treatment
Every year the charter flights, or to be more precise the package vacation deals, rank high in the number of complaints that reach the Arbitration Institute of the Israel Tourist and Travel Agents Association (ITTAA), the various consumer organizations and the press.
The complaints for the most part relate to inaccurate flight schedules, long delays and a lack of information as to when the flight will take off, transfering the passenger to a hotel that he did not request, with the travel agent defending himself by claiming that the hotel was overbooked, rude replies at the reservation hotlines and even unpleasant behavior on the part of the foreign representatives of the companies - for example, an overly long time to disperse the passengers from the airport to their hotels, pressure to participate in the organized trips and contempt for the passengers.
Most of the complaints about flight delays relate to Turkey and deals to nearby destinations, since the planes that are used for the flights make several trips a day. If there is a delay at one destination, it will continue at the next destination as well. Someone who works in the industry explains that in Europe the local airlines are fined for delays, and therefore the foreign companies try first of all not to be delayed in Europe - and thus there is a longer delay in Israel.
On the other hand, Bezalel Karvat of Sun D'Or says that if there is a problem with the plane, Sun D'Or can get backup planes from El Al or notify the passengers not to arrive at the airport.
Izzy Medam, the CEO of Easy Travel, who shares part of the Holiday Lines plane to Turkey, says that this year all the wholesalers have arranged for a safety interval in the schedules in order to avoid a repeat of the delays and the exceptionally long hours of waiting at the airport which took place last year. "The wholesaler doesn't know what the agent tells the customer, whether he overrates the hotel or raises the level of expectations. Most don't do so, but when it does happen, sometimes we are the targets even when we are not to blame," he insists.
As the largest provider of package deals to Antalya, Flying Carpet is the natural address for most of the complaints. Ziv Rabinovitch, the company's marketing director, notes that over 70 percent of the flights this Pesach to Turkey were Flying Carpet flights.
"We are familiar with all the complaints. This year we will do our best to keep them to a minimum. As far as the attitude of the phone operators, we have hired a service expert who is giving a special workshop on the subject. We have also increased the time intervals between flights, in order to minimize the problems that arise during the peak periods, but it should be noted that in most cases changes in schedule are forced on us by the airlines."
Ami Cohen of Holiday Lines admits that they also receive complaints about their products, but in general "if the wholesaler reserves the rooms in Antalya in time and pays for them on time - the hotel honors the reservation." He says that Holiday Lines flies the passengers on Sky Airlines, which has a very high punctuality rate.
Shai Marina, vice president for commerce and planning at Israir, explains that "even in sophisticated planes there are hitches, and it takes time to organize an alternative plane. Sometimes that takes a day or two. The question is whether there are two such incidents in a season, or 10. Usually it happens on August 15, on the peak day of the year for outgoing flights."
Bruriah Chen of the World Travel Center, which specializes in the Greek islands and Athens, adds that in case of hitches, if the airline has created the problem, it should be sued. "If a wholesaler canceled or combined flights, it is the address for complaints."
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