El AI lost $47.5 million last year, according to its annual budget. Nevertheless, the airline’s management expressed satisfaction with the deficit, pointing out that it was about half the loss it incurred in 1979. They said this was the result of strict measures taken to reduce expenditures.
Of the total deficit, $38 million was an operational loss with another $9.5 million due to payment of severance pay to pilots and others persuaded to retire as an economy measure. El Al director general Yitzhak Shander said the airline will ask the new government, as soon as it is formed, to improve the capital structure of the company.
He also wants the government to ensure that the national airline’s interests are fully catered for in any agreements reached on charter flights to and from Israel.
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.
