Looks like the ball is now in ELAL's union court. Become a far smaller company (and get bailed out) or cease to exist.

In Hebrew:

הכדור נמצא בידי העובדים: אל על קטנה הרבה יותר - או פירוק החברה?

Blocked behind paywall

The unions are only part of the problem, the other is LY's bloated and way overpaid mismanagement team.

El Al could be an amazing airline, but its handicapped by both the unions and a management team that are steeped on socialist Israel, not modern Israel.

That can be said for most of the Country. But to be fair its not any better over here where its basically the same situation and even worse in NYC with the Unions and Execs in any field

According to TheMarker (Hebrew, paywall), El Al is expected to lay off 2000 employees, including one quarter of its pilots, and significantly reduce its fleet.

Shuly

what do you think will be like ?

I guess they could dump a bunch of the older 738's but they have 15 brand new 787s, I suppose some of the 777 could be dumped, but right now, at rock bottom prices seems like a bad idea.

We need 350 million shekel aid or we'll be shut within days, the airline says.

Apparently debt to customers (for cancelled flights) stands at 200 million shekels which they don't have, and so they are working on some incentive offering customers more value and flexibility for the tickets they are holding if they don't ask for a refund.

https://www.mako.co.il/news-money/20...m_medium=Share

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-e...aid-1001325887

According to the plan - the fleet will shrink from 48 to 36 planes and they will likely get rid of leased aircraft even if that means using older aircraft that they own.

Also - 2 of the 777's have been converted from passenger to cargo.

The market value of El Al as of today is 382M shekel, or about US$108M. According to the two sources cited above, El Al seeks a government-guaranteed loan of 350M US dollars, not shekel. That is three times its value. Why should the government back up 75-80% of this loan, which is quite unlikely to be returned, when it can buy (and nationalize) the entire airline for one third the cost?

Shuly

Because it is not their money, it is ours.

There is probably no better time than now to let the airline be liquidated, if ever so inclined to let the airline be liquidated and let the market be the market in matching supply with demand.

If any previous Israeli precedents are anything to go by, the likely outcome in such a situation would be just as bad, or even worse: The company would fold up, but it would only be sold if the buyers guaranteed what are called "the workers' rights". And guess what? Some Israeli socialist dreamer with too much cash (or, more likely, the ability to twist some arms to borrow it) will actually do that. Forget about reviving it as a profitable entity.

El Al is becoming a cargo airline
 

El Al signed an agreement with logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel whereby the airline will operate 150 cargo flights from China to Italy until October (two daily flights). Two of El Al 777s have already been converted to a cargo-only configuration. Returning from Italy (where to? China or Israel? unclear) the flights will go via the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Source: HaAretz (Hebrew)

Shuly

Better than to provide a corporate bailout to an already heavily government-backed airline is to to assist the displaced employees directly and let some other players salvage from any available scraps put on the open market without being tied down with legacy problems .... not all of which are labor.