El Al, Israel’s government-owned airline, made a remarkable recovery after the Persian Gulf War and was one of the few international air carriers to show a profit last year.
It earned $38.9 million in 1991 on revenues of $877.6 million, the company reported Monday. That was nearly triple the $14.1 million earned in 1990 when air traffic slumped badly during the prolonged crisis that preceded the war.
Revenue was up 12 percent, though passenger traffic stood at 1.7 million, down 1 percent from 1990. But 177,000 tons of cargo were carried, up 5 percent from the previous year.
El Al, which was put into receivership in 1982, has made an impressive comeback, so much so that its planned privatization has been given much lower priority by the government, according to airline spokesman Nachman Kleiman.
It was the only regularly scheduled airline that continued flying to the Middle East during the Gulf war, from January to March 1991.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
