Haredi leaders have come to an agreement with El Al that would end a month-old unofficial boycott of the Israeli airline over a flight that took off from Miami on the sabbath.

El Al and airport officials met with representatives of the haredi rabbinic leadership late into the night on Thursday, in the end penning an agreement that would put to an end the a month-long dispute over Shabbat flights in which leading spiritual leaders advised their followers to boycott the air carrier.

El Al reportedly reiterated its commitment not to fly on the sabbath, which has been its policy since 1982. According to the agreement, El Al will appoint a rabbi to decide in cases where a Shabbat flight is deemed necessary.

The Shabbat flights the first week in December were unusual for the national carrier, which has an unwritten agreement with the haredi public to refrain from Shabbat desecration. However, El Al officials said the flights were allowed due to delays caused by a general labor strike that paralyzed the airport and left hundreds of prospective flyers stranded.

The religious leaders have cut into as much as 30 percent of El Al's revenues on flights to America and certain destinations in Europe.

Speaking with reporters at an annual Eilat Travel Agents Conference in December, an El Al official said 'that despite being a private company, El Al does not operate flights on Shabbat and is very stringent in keeping to that.

'But under certain, rare circumstances, like last Shabbat, when we had hundreds of people stranded in Israel because of the strike, we have to fly on Shabbat. We had no other solution but to fly 70 flights to make up for the backlog. Otherwise, people would have been delayed for days in Israel. We decided not to leave any groups in Israel without hotel accommodation.

'Obviously, we made it clear to everyone and no one was forced to fly on Shabbat against their will. But we also gave other passengers, including women with babies, the elderly and sick people, the option of flying on Shabbat.

'This event is irregular for El Al and we hope that the haredi community will understand and consider the feelings of other customers.'

However, Rabbi Haim Kanyevsky was unmoved by the explanation and he warned his followers it was borderline death threatening [sfek sakana] to board an El Al plane until the management did a complete repentance and promised never to desecrate Shabbat again.

An El-Al spokesperson said the religious and haredi market made up approximately 20% of El Al's customer-base with the New York, London and Brussels routes dominating the market. The boycott led to approximately one million dollars a day in losses for the airline.

The two sides nearly came to an agreement hours before the boycott was called a month ago. Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknoph, secretary of the Rabbinic Council for the Holiness of Shabbat, said the haredim required a legally binding written agreement.

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