El Al Airlines announced it will halt all daytime Tel Aviv-Eilat flight starting last Thursday, two weeks after resuming flights based on an understanding with government aviation officials that a solution would be found to a new landing path that El Al considers too dangerous to use.
El Al will continue to make its nighttime flight to Eilat, using the current flight path. In a statement the company noted "We will not compromise the safety of our passengers. The new flight path to Eilat does not offer the proper safety level for civil aviation".
El Al suspended and then resumed flights to El Al two weeks earlier this month after the Civil Aviation Authority allowed the airline to use the regular landing paths while a study was carried out on the new path.
Aviation officials have not changed the route, and El Al is standing by its position, although other airlines are using the new landing path.
The Transportation Ministry rejected El Al's assertion that the new flight path was unsafe, saying that it was created in cooperation with El Al, Arkia, Israir, the Israel Airports Authority, the Israel Air Force and international bodies.
Last month, Israeli authorities ordered the closure of Eilat’s airport based on a tip from Egyptian security services that a radical Muslim terrorist cell planned to launch midrange missiles at the airport.
