1) El Al's ownership is not all that interested in profits. They are more interested in currying favor among a certain elitist "old-boy" network of ex-Air Force jocks and politicos.

2) El Al's pilots and senior management, who provide its ownership with the "favor" depicted above, maintain their role in the ecosystem so that they will indeed be insulated and protected from the new realities of global aviation. READ: They won't have to work all that hard.