Flight passenger rights

What Israeli law gives you when a flight to or from Israel is cancelled, delayed, brought forward or overbooked, or when you are moved to a lower class: who owes it to you, how much, and how Rahlio helps you claim it.

Last updated: 24 Sept 2026

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Trading name: Rahlio
Contact: support@rahlio.com

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1. About this notice

1.1. This notice is the information for passengers that a seller of flight tickets must publish on its website under section 14(a)(2) of the Aviation Services Law (Compensation and Assistance for Flight Cancellation or Change), 5772-2012 (the "Law"). It is published on www.rahlio.com and linked from wherever flights are shown, on the site and in the Rahlio app. It summarises the Law in plain words; where the two differ, the Law and the regulations and orders made under it decide.

1.2. The Law applies to every flight that takes off from Israel or lands in Israel, including a flight with a connection. Flights within Israel are covered by separate regulations with lower compensation amounts. Other law — for example, the law of the country you fly from — may give you further rights, but you cannot receive the same kind of benefit twice for the same event under the Law and under foreign law.

2. Who owes you these rights

2.1. Your rights under the Law are against the airline that operates the flight and, on a charter flight, against the organiser who hired the aircraft capacity and sold the seats. An airline or organiser that actually carries you is treated as acting for whoever you contracted with, even if you have no contract with it yourself.

2.2. Rahlio sells flight tickets as a travel agent. We do not operate flights, and the benefits below are not paid by us — but at your request we will claim them for you, as described under "How Rahlio helps you".

2.3. Nothing reduces these rights: not a fare rule, not the airline’s conditions of carriage, and not our Terms of Use or Booking Terms. The Law may be varied only in the passenger’s favour, and it does not take away any right you have under any other law.

3. When you are entitled

3.1. You are entitled to the benefits if you hold a ticket for the flight and presented yourself on time at the airline’s check-in counter — at the time the airline, the organiser or your travel agent told you, which may not be more than three hours before the scheduled departure, or, if no time was set, at least 90 minutes before departure. If the flight was cancelled, you do not need to present yourself at all.

3.2. You are not entitled to the benefits if:

you were told that you had been moved to another flight, and you reached your final destination at the time shown on your original ticket; or
your ticket was free, or was bought at a special fare not available to the public, directly or indirectly — unless it was issued under an airline’s or organiser’s frequent-flyer or rewards programme.

4. What the benefits are

4.1. Depending on what happened, the Law entitles you to some or all of the following:

Assistance, free of charge: food and drink suited to the waiting time; two telephone calls and a fax or email message of your choice; a hotel room when a stay of one night or more — or a longer stay than you planned — becomes necessary; and transport between the airport and the hotel, or another place within reasonable distance where you choose to stay.
A refund of everything you paid for the ticket, including fees, levies and taxes, which the airline or organiser must pay within 21 days of the day you — or we, on your behalf — asked for it in writing.
An alternative ticket to your final destination, on terms as close as possible to those of your original ticket, at the earliest possible time or at a later time agreed with you, subject to seats being available.
Fixed compensation in money, by the distance of the flight (see "Compensation amounts"), which the airline or organiser must pay within 45 days of the day you — or we, on your behalf — asked for it in writing, in cash, by bank transfer or by cheque; by vouchers or any other means only if you expressly agree to it in writing.

4.2. A refund and an alternative ticket are alternatives: choosing one gives up the other. On a round trip with the same airline, an event on the outbound flight entitles you to a refund of the full price, and one on the return flight to half of it. If you reach your connection point and decide not to continue because of the event, the airline must also fly you back to where you started, free of charge, in addition to the refund.

5. If your flight is cancelled

5.1. A flight counts as cancelled if it does not take place, or if it takes off at least eight hours after the time on your ticket. A change of flight number on its own is not a cancellation.

5.2. If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to assistance; to a refund or an alternative ticket, as you choose; and to compensation. An airline or organiser that tells you of a cancellation must set out the alternatives for reaching your final destination.

5.3. If you accept an alternative ticket, the compensation may be halved when you land at your final destination no later than two hours after the original arrival time on a flight of up to 2,000 km, three hours on a flight of up to 4,500 km, or four hours on a longer flight.

5.4. Compensation — but not assistance, and not the refund or alternative ticket — is not due if the airline or organiser proves that you were told of the cancellation:

at least 14 days before the date of the flight on your ticket;
between 7 and 14 days before it, and you were offered an alternative flight leaving no more than two hours before the original departure time and arriving at your final destination no more than four hours after the original arrival time; or
less than 7 days before it, and you were offered an alternative flight leaving no more than one hour before the original departure time and arriving no more than two hours after the original arrival time.

5.5. These notice exceptions do not apply if you turned the alternative flight down because it was not offered to a person you had said was travelling with you, or because you could not take it for reasons of security, religion or a medical limitation. The burden of proving that you were told, and when, is on the airline or organiser.

5.6. Compensation is also not due if the airline or organiser proves that the flight was cancelled because of special circumstances beyond its control, whose consequences it could not have prevented even by doing everything in its power; because of a protected strike or lockout; or to avoid desecrating the Sabbath or a holiday.

6. If your flight is delayed

6.1. What you are entitled to grows with the delay in take-off against the time on your ticket:

two hours or more — food and drink, and communication services;
five hours or more, but less than eight — in addition, a refund or an alternative ticket, as you choose; and if you choose an alternative flight that leaves the next day, also a hotel and transport to and from it. If the delay is caused by a protected strike or lockout, you are entitled only to a refund, food and drink, and communication services;
eight hours or more — the flight counts as cancelled, and everything under "If your flight is cancelled" applies, including compensation.

7. If your flight is brought forward

7.1. If the departure is brought forward, and you were told of it less than 14 days before the date of the flight on your ticket:

by more than five hours and up to eight hours — you are entitled to a refund or an alternative ticket, as you choose;
by more than eight hours — you are entitled to a refund or an alternative ticket, as you choose, and to compensation, unless the change was caused by special circumstances beyond the airline’s control or by a protected strike or lockout.

8. If you are refused boarding

8.1. Before refusing to fly a passenger who holds a ticket — including because the flight was overbooked — the airline or organiser must first ask the passengers booked on the flight whether any of them will give up their seat in return for a benefit agreed with it.

8.2. If you are refused boarding and did not agree to give up your seat, you are entitled to assistance, to compensation and, as you choose, to a refund or an alternative ticket. If you accept an alternative ticket, the compensation may be halved when you land at your final destination no more than four hours late on a flight of up to 2,000 km, five hours on a flight of up to 4,500 km, or six hours on a longer flight.

8.3. These rights do not apply where you could not be flown for security reasons, because of your state of health or out of concern for the safety of the flight, or because you did not have proper travel documents. Even so, a passenger refused for security reasons is entitled to the compensation if they arrived at the airport at least three hours before departure, cooperated with the security check and were found fit to fly at its end, and their travel documents were in order.

9. If you are moved to a different class

9.1. If the airline or organiser moves you to a higher class than the one on your ticket, it may not charge you for it. If it moves you to a lower class, it must pay you, within 21 days of the flight, a share of the price you paid for the ticket:

first class to business class — 60%;
business class to economy class — 80%;
first class to economy class — 90%;
first or business class to economy class, on a flight of more than 4,500 km — 100%.

9.2. On a journey with a connection, the share is taken of the ticket price in proportion to the distance of the flight on which you were moved down, out of the distance of the whole journey. For a ticket bought as part of a package, the Law sets the ticket price by class and distance, unless another price is shown to have been paid.

10. Compensation amounts

10.1. Compensation is fixed by the distance of the flight, measured as the shortest distance between the two points on the surface of a sphere, and is paid to each passenger entitled to it. The amounts are linked to the consumer price index. From 1 January 2026, as published by the Director General of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety (Yalkut HaPirsumim 14222, 4 February 2026), they are:

a flight of up to 2,000 km — ₪1,530;
a flight of more than 2,000 km and up to 4,500 km — ₪2,450;
a flight of more than 4,500 km — ₪3,670.

10.2. The amounts are updated every 1 January by the rise in the consumer price index, and the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety publishes each update in the official gazette (Reshumot) and on its website.

11. In a declared emergency

11.1. When a special situation on the home front, a civil emergency or a health emergency has been declared and has lasted more than 14 days, the Minister of Transport may, by an order approved by the Knesset Economics Committee and for a limited period, change some of these rights for the flights the order covers: limit the hotel nights to no fewer than two; adjust the right to an alternative ticket, which may then be from or to a different place; shorten the 14-day notice period to no less than three days; or suspend compensation for flights cancelled or brought forward. When such an order applies to a ticket issued before it was made, the airline or organiser must tell you — and so will we, once the airline tells us.

12. How Rahlio helps you

12.1. If you bought your ticket through Rahlio and want a refund or compensation under the Law, write to us at support@rahlio.com with your booking reference. At your request we will contact the airline, the organiser or whoever acts for them on your behalf to claim these benefits for you, as section 15 of the Law requires, and keep you informed of the answer.

12.2. The airline’s time limits run from the written request — 21 days for a refund and 45 days for compensation — and a request we make for you starts them just as your own would. When we learn that your flight has been cancelled or changed, we pass the notice on to you.

12.3. At the airport, the airline must have a person appointed to help passengers exercise their rights under the Law; the airline gives you that person’s location and contact details, and when it gives them to us, we pass them on. If your flight is disrupted, you are also entitled to receive from the airline or organiser a document setting out your rights.

13. If you do not receive what you are owed

13.1. If the airline or organiser does not give you what the Law entitles you to, you can:

write to the airline or organiser, yourself or through us at support@rahlio.com;
raise the matter with the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel, part of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety, whose minister is charged with carrying out the Law;
sue the airline or organiser, including in the small claims court for a claim within its limit (₪39,900 from 1 January 2026).

13.2. If a court finds that the airline or organiser knowingly withheld benefits the Law requires, it may award you, in addition to the benefits themselves, exemplary damages of up to ₪12,240 (the index-linked amount from 1 January 2026), without any need to prove loss.

13.3. A claim under the Law must be brought within four years of the day the right arose.