clubman

According to this article they cannot survive more than 3-4 weeks now without a government bailout

https://www.themarker.com/markets/.premium-1.8706989

We'll see how this plays out...

LatusElAl

ZERO possibility El Al disappears.
Worst case scenario (and unlikely): Gov't nationalizes the airline.
More likely scenario: Gov't pumps in money in return for serious cutbacks.

entropy

Gov should just nationalize it and once the covid mess is over, re-privatize it (with new ownership, hopefully more competent than the current owners..)

riman

חברת אל-על תפסיק את כל טיסות אל-על הסדירות החל מהלילה ועד ל-4 באפריל
Al cancels all flights starting tonight (26-MAR-2020).
El Al decided to stop all scheduled flights definitively began tonight due to the economic crisis affecting the company.El Al will cease all flights to Al regularity began the night until April 4
Today, the company operates about 10 daily flights to the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
The company will continue to issue rescue flights to Israelis, as well as cargo flights.
Al-Al said that as essential flights for medical equipment were needed, the company would continue to provide them.

shuly

craz

Im not sure if its only a ploy to get the $$$ ASAP from the Govt or not.And the only thing really needed are the cargo and recuse flights anyways

On the other hand UA 90/91 combo has been flying very empty this past week, could be UA still has a decent cargo biz going that will yield a profit for its flights, Im sure if UA starts to see a loss if it keeps flying that they will simply CX it as well

nombody

With sympathies to all the El Al employees who are on unpaid leave - unfortunately i think the long term best interest of country and El Al is to let it fail.
But then help formulate the successor company to El Al in a way that will be sustainably profitable in the good times and at least not have massive losses the rest of the time.

​​​​El Al has unique challenges as the national airline - security and Shabbat in particular. And then there are the excessive pay standards for pilots and management. In the current political climate i dont see it as likely though that anyone will take that courageous decision to let it fail. If it does fail, another local airline will surely take its place (see Swissair and Swiss)

El Al was barely profitable in most of the last 5 years which were boom times to the rest of the airline jndustry. If the government will bail out El Al it should be conditioned on serious reform of the whole company.

The CEO asks if having a national airline is important to national security. It is - up to a point. Right now El Al is shutting down all their flights while United and BA are still flying to Israel.

24left

LY is not UA for all the reasons we know, and don't know.

Looking at an airline smaller than UA but larger than LY, Air Canada stopped flying YYZ-TLV a while back for all the reasons we see other airlines suspending routes. AC at this point, has possibly only 5 international routes left from its pretty vast network. Like LH and others, they are now also looking at using pax aircraft for cargo operations.

Look at AA, they have barely 4 international routes left. SAS shut down completely. LOT shut down. IIRC, SQ only has 11 of 196 routes that are still flying. Many other airlines all over the world shut down either because countries to which they fly closed borders or now don't allow entry to foreigners. Some airlines have to send double crews, with the outbound crew returning immediately as pax. A look at all the photos of parked fleets all over the world is both sad but a stark reality.

Of course LY's challenges are far greater than almost anyone else. There is always going to be the security and geographical challenges. I would be interested in the financials prior to this current disaster. Was LY making money during the good times?

shuly

TK operates its last TLV flight today. Won't resume before April 17.

Shuly

HumbleBee

Did anyone actually study their financial statements and know when they will really run out of cash?

From the govt silence it does not seem like there is much support for a bailout. Netanyahu is anti nationalization on principal.

clubman

Really not going well at all. The government are not biting so far...

In Hebrew:
https://www.globes.co.il/news/articl...did=1001324750

Alpha Golf

Does anyone believe it will be allowed to shut down?

Maybe brinkmanship, maybe renationalize, but I just can't see the government really allowing it.

entropy

Airlines can (and have, all the time) go bankrupt, wipe out the shareholders, and force other stakeholders to take haircuts.

If LY goes "bankrupt", it won't necessarily mean liquidation, rather the creditors will be restructured, contracts voided and re-done, the equity holders will be gone (I doubt many here will shed a tear for the borovitches).

Israel should not miss this opportunity to restructure LY as a carrier of "startup nation" Israel rather than Balagan/Proteksia Israel.

sabbasolo

For all these years, LY received government subsidies so that "they would keep flying when everyone else stopped flying to Israel". Now they want subsidies because they have stopped flying, whilst others continue. I am not impressed that they have operated a few charters (paid charters) or rescue flights (charging $$$ for tickets).

Let them go bankrupt, renegotiate the union agreements, new shareholders, ... and restart.

Same for the IAA airport authorities, but in spades.

Fly613

Agreed. History has shown that when companies believe they are 'too big to fail' they don't take enough care / responsibility. Let's them fail and restart with leaner costs, lower pilot privileges etc