This is a bit odd, but El Al passengers here in Bangkok were ordered off the plane, because they could not fly on the Sabbath. Story here. They were initially told mechanical problems, but the airline’s CEO fessed up to postponing the flight until after the Sabbath. I assume this was the Jewish Sabbath.
I can’t recall anything like this happening before. The wife has even flown El Al more than once round trip between Bangkok and Tel Aviv. Maybe she just hit the right days? Is this common? 
yes, it’s common. Not intentionally planned, , but it does happen.
El Al is prohibited from flying on the Jewish Sabbath. So of course they have no flights on Friday night or Saturday. But they also cannot take off before Sabbath, if the flight will land at its destination after Sabbath has begun.
So if a flight that was scheduled to land in Tel Aviv on Friday morning( say, 6 hours before the Sabbath begins) gets delayed by more than 6 hours, the plane is not allowed to take off until Saturday night.
My advice—never book an El Al flight on a Friday.
My advice would be to never book an El Al flight, ever. How incredibly inconsiderate of all their paying passengers. And they lied to them first, too! :mad: Now that is showing respect for your religion, all right. Luckily, I don`t have any plans to visit Israel since I doubt it would be a consideration otherwise…
Wait, I’m confused. If this has been their policy since the airline began, wouldn’t the same kind of thing be happening every week? Why is this a news story now?
I thought they had some agreement to fly on Shabbes, but obviously not.
Probably the same guys who throw furniture at women praying at the Western wall, although my step daughter escaped unscathed. 
I have to say I am shocked as well. They really ground their expensive aircraft for ~15% of the possible travel time? How on earth can they compete doing that.
Thanks for the info. That’s good to know. Still strange I’ve not heard of this coming up before.
I do have to say I am impressed with El Al’s security. If you ever want a flight that you can be sure won’t be hijacked, El Al is it. Their security is tight, and I believe they’ve never had a hijacking as a result.
The wife used to have some business at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and so would fly El Al, I think because HU paid for it. Passengers always had to arrive earlier than for other airlines’ flights, and I recall El Al would set up a little security center off in a corner of the terminal here in Bangkok and interview each passenger. Even though I am a white non-Muslim American, the fact that the wife was married to a foreigner marked her for extra questioning. Who I was, how we’d met, that sort of thing. (I was there to see her off, but they never wanted to talk to me.) They also asked her if she or I knew any Muslims or anyone living in a Muslim country. Yes to both, so further questioning about that. But no rubber hoses, and they were consistently polite and professional. The wife’s sister, upon hearing all of this, remarked she’d be too afraid to fly them, but I said no, that’s maybe who you want to fly if you’re going to Israel.