Israeli airline security-staff crisis is solved, lifting threat of cancelled flights

Hundreds of international flights by Israel’s 3 airlines are no longer at risk of being canceled after the finance and foreign ministries, together with the National Security Council, reached an agreement Thursday to cover the financial costs of security. The agreement, finalised over the last few days, calls for increasing funding for 1,200 security personnel – up from 950 – stationed at foreign airports to supervise boarding. The Finance Ministry agreed to allocate the funds to the Foreign Ministry to cover the added costs. However, the agreement is only for 2018. The lack of funding for security personnel had reached a crisis in recent weeks, as airlines said they were going to pull scheduled flights during the Passover holiday and summer season because there was no security. <br/>