.The Israeli airline El Al reported a massive 53 percent drop in quarterly profit this week, citing higher salary and jet fuel expenditure ahead of its fleet modernization programme.
The national carrier of Israel announced on Wednesday it had earned $16.4 million, thats £12.7 million, in the second quarter of the year, down from 35 million a year earlier.
The airline says overall expenses rose by 5 percent, due mainly because of higher wages, while jet fuel costs grew by 6.2 percent. In December the carrier signed a deal with its pilots to end a year of protests that led to flight cancellations, delays, higher costs and angry passengers. Which cost the airline dear and they have reported losses in the two previous quarters.
Later this month, El Al expected to take delivery of a new Boeing 787-9 aircraft, this will be the first of 16 Dreamliners have ordered. The super efficient jet will replace its ageing long-haul fleet and will cost a lot less to run and be popular with the travelling public, which have, in recent times deserted the airline.
El Al is "continuing its efforts to cope with challenging market conditions", El Al Chief Executive David Maimon said. Another important step for the airline, Maimon explained, was to expand its route network in North America. The carrier is launching non-stop flights between Tel Aviv and Miami in November.
On Monday, El Al signed a special code-share deal with Aeromexico, traffic between Israel and Mexico has grown by more than 10 percent a year in recent years.
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