Tobias (Toby) Siegal is editor and contributor to The Times of Israel.
Israel’s flag carrier, El Al, is recovering from the pandemic and a months-long hard-working dispute that has led to flight cancellations on an almost daily basis, according to the airline’s financial reports released Thursday.
The current fiscal quarter 2022 report indicates that the company benefited from 3 months of open skies reflected in uninterrupted activity, the longest era of consecutive activity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The corporate recorded a profit of $516 million in the last quarter, 132% more than the same year before and 12% more than the figure registered in 2019, before the pandemic.
The company also said it made a net profit of $100 million in the last fiscal quarter, to a net loss of $57 million at about the same time last year.
Increased demand and emerging flight prices have played a role in the company’s monetary improvement.
According to The Marker, flight costs have increased by 28% in recent months. El Al’s earnings from passenger flights increased 227% from the same era in 2021, reaching $327 million. This is despite a 120% increase in jet fuel costs.
Last month, the airline announced it was putting its Boeing 777-200ER back into service due to “strong demand for flights in the summer,” after temporarily shutting down the direction of the pandemic.
Another major factor that worked in El Al’s favor and allowed the company to carry out a $117 million tax exemption it obtained after promoting its subsidiary, the Frequent Flyer program, to the phoenix insurance company earlier this year. Without the tax relief, the company ended the quarter with a net loss of $17 million.
El Al shares have registered an 86% increase since the beginning of 2022.
In addition to easing restrictions and the consequent increase in demand for flights, the airline bounced back thanks to an agreement signed with its pilots last month that ended a months-long hard-working dispute that had led to daily flight disruptions.
The pilots had declared themselves sick, forcing the cancellation of flights, every day of the peak travel season, as they demanded that their paychecks be higher according to an earlier agreement signed in 2017.
The company’s shares rose 12% after the deal was signed.
“The culmination of our ‘restart plan’ reflects well in the effects of this quarter and allows us to begin the transition from managing our expenses to managing our business expansion and development,” said El Al CEO Dina Ben-Tal, who has been named executive leader. Managing Director in April.
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