Thousands of passengers wait at Ben Gurion International Airport during a wildcat strike, August 20, 2026.
Israel Airports Authority chair Yiftah Ron-Tal is seeking to fire Pinhas Idan, the head of the IAA workers’ union, in the wake of Thursday’s two-hour wildcat strike that caused chaos on the year’s busiest day for travel, Channel 12 reports. Cancellations and extensive delays at Ben Gurion Airport extended well into Friday. The airport has been functioning more normally today, Shabbat, when air traffic is in any case lower, albeit still with delayed flights and delayed baggage return.
Idan is 70 and had his term extended after it was set to end in May, reportedly amid pressure on the IAA from senior Likud politicians. Idan is a Likud Central Committee member who has reportedly signed up thousands of people as Likud members. He ran for the Knesset with Likud in 2019 but was told he could not do so and retain his job, and so he abandoned that bid.
Ron-Tal is seeking to convene the IAA board to oust Idan, and is seeking legal advice on handling the issue, Channel 12 reports.
The report says the IAA is also set to fire a senior administrative aide to Idan who was the subject of a Civil Service Commission inquiry for allegedly clocking in at the airport for over a decade without actually working. A Channel 12 report earlier this year also alleged that numerous relatives of Idan were employed at the airport without actually working.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to expel Idan from Likud.
At the same time, Idan is tonight appealing to Israel’s Labor Court, alleging that the IAA has been breaching employees’ rights at the airport, including by requiring baggage handlers to routinely work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, the TV report says, noting that this phenomenon is at the root of Thursday’s airport walkout.
The IAA and Idan have been blaming each other for Thursday’s chaos, with Idan claiming that he did not order strike action.
According to the TV report, Idan asserts that the baggage handlers were exhausted on Thursday — when the airport was scheduled to be handling some 107,000 passengers on over 600 flights — and that he gave those who had been working for nine hours that day permission to end their scheduled shift, rather than continuing for overtime hours.
Channel 12 says it has confirmed that this was indeed the case, and that it was Ben Gurion Airport management — under Ron-Tal and Ben Gurion Airport CEO Sharon Kedmi — who told airport staff, including at check-in, to stop work, since the airport could not function as some 12-20 baggage handlers had gone home. Luggage coming off planes and going onto planes was backing up, and the situation was unworkable.
The report says the airport management nonetheless blames Idan for the chaos, since the heavy workload in the later summer months is known, the shifts are routinely extended, and overtime is routinely paid.
It says Kedmi and Idan were due to meet on Thursday morning to discuss the issue amid the very high numbers using the airport in recent weeks, but that Idan did not turn up for the meeting and gave no warning that he would be allowing the baggage handlers to go home without doing their overtime hours, inevitably causing the airport shutdown.
The cost of the shutdown has been estimated at NIS 25-30 million ($8.3-10 million).
Reference Link:- https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/airports-authority-reportedly-seeking-to-fire-union-chief-over-thursdays-airport-shutdown/