חוק שירותי תעופה (פיצוי וסיוע בשל ביטול טיסה או שינוי בתנאיה) (נגיף הקורונה החדש – הוראת שעה – תיקון), התש"ף-2020Aviation Services Law (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellation or Change of Conditions) (New Coronavirus - temporary provision - Amendment), 2020 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The Aviation Services Law (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellation or Change of Conditions), 2012 (hereinafter - the Law), requires airlines to provide passengers with benefits due to flight cancellation or change of conditions for reasons not dependent on the passenger. The spread of the coronavirus pandemic led to a severe and unprecedented crisis in the aviation industry, to an almost complete shutdown of air traffic to and from Israel, and to a cash-flow crisis for airlines. Therefore, provisions were established whose purpose is to assist this industry, and in particular the Israeli airlines that were severely harmed due to the crisis, to cope with it. This, as a time-limited temporary provision. The temporary provision applies to every flight to and from Israel, as well as to domestic flights, whose scheduled takeoff date is from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2020. In addition, the temporary provision applies to flights whose scheduled takeoff date was before 1 March 2020, if they were to or from destinations subject to an isolation requirement due to the coronavirus. With regard to flights to which the temporary provision applies, the period set in the Law for refunding the payment made for the flight ticket to the passenger entitled thereto (that is, the date of the financial refund to the passenger) was extended from 21 days after the passenger's written request to the airline, to 90 days from the scheduled takeoff date, without the need for the passenger to contact the airline. With regard to flights for which this date has already passed, airlines are required to refund the money to passengers by 14 August 2020. Regarding a cancelled flight, which is also defined in the Law as a flight that took off at least 8 hours late, the temporary provision establishes that a passenger will not be entitled to financial compensation due to the cancellation, but will remain entitled to a refund or an alternative flight ticket. The airline may give the passenger a credit voucher instead of a refund or alternative flight ticket only if the passenger chose this and agreed to it in writing, and the credit voucher must comply with the provisions set in the temporary provision, whose purpose is to protect the passenger. Among these provisions - the possibility of transferring the voucher to another person without additional payment; the possibility of redeeming the voucher for at least a year and for any service offered by the airline, and more. In addition, the entitlement of passengers whose flight was cancelled to hotel accommodation services was limited to a maximum of two nights. It was further established that the Minister of Transport and Road Safety, in consultation with the Minister of Economy and Industry and with the approval of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, may extend the validity of the temporary provision for additional periods, which together shall not exceed a cumulative total of 9 months, if there are restrictions due to the coronavirus that significantly affect passenger traffic to and from Israel.

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