As international airlines cancel flights to Israel amid war, El Al fills in gap, records historically high profits

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El Al Israel Airlines reported a record quarterly profit, benefiting from the "unusual demand," as many foreign carriers have not resumed their full flight service to Israel.

El Al announced a record $80.5 million profit during the first quarter of 2024 due to a lack of international competition. It was reportedly the best quarter profit result in the airline's history. For comparison, El Al reported a net loss of $34.4 million during the first quarter of 2023.

Israel's ongoing war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza has resulted in many canceled flights by international airline companies to and from Ben-Gurion International Airport for security reasons.

This development has made international air travel more difficult and more expensive for Israelis and foreign visitors, with El Al currently controlling a whopping 62% of the passenger air traffic to and from Israel, despite it not having a monopoly on the passenger market.

"Due to the fact that the war brought about significant changes in the movement of passengers in Israel and in the offer of flights in the market, the demand for the company's flights in the first quarter of 2024, despite the gradual return of foreign airlines, continued even stronger and even increased,” El Al announced in an official statement.

While welcoming the increased profits, El AL noted that passenger demand was putting pressure on the airline's seat capacity.

"The company is experiencing increased demand for its flights in relation to the seat-capacity it can offer, and is continuing its operational efforts to increase the supply of flights as much as possible, within the limits of its capacity, and is making commercial and operational adjustments. Because of this, the traditional seasonal trend, in which the winter months see low passenger traffic, was not reflected in the current quarter, and therefore this period was characterized by demand levels that the company experiences in peak seasons in normal times," the El Al statement read.

While El Al is dominating the Israeli air travel market, nevertheless, it is challenged by some local competitors including Blue Bird, a Greek-registered and Israeli-owned airline company. Like El Al, Blue Bird has seized the opportunity to fill the vacuum caused by the departure of international airline companies from the Israeli market.

Unlike El Al’s global reach, Blue Bird focuses its limited resources on 14 popular destinations in the Mediterranean region, including Greece, as well as the European market.

In April, Blue Bird became the fifth most popular airline company at Ben Gurion Airport after El Al, Israir, Arkia and the Hungarian-owned low-cost airline company, Wizz Air.

Its market success is linked to its strikingly different approach to the current war situation. While most international airline companies decided to halt or dramatically reduce their flights to and from Tel Aviv, Blue Bird expanded its flights and even offered rescue flights during the most intensive months of the war when Hamas fired a large number of rockets at central Israel.

The airline addressed recent criticism of the latest flight schedule amid various security threats, including the unprecedented aerial attack from the Iranian regime over a month ago.

In mid-April, Iran launched more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles into Israeli territory. Israel, the United States and other international allies reportedly succeeded in intercepting 99% of the Iranian drones and missiles. Despite the scale of the attack, the casualties were minimal, with reports indicating only a few injuries and no fatalities, however, a 7-year-old girl was reportedly seriously wounded by shrapnel.

"The postponement of the flights was only after the Iranian attack, due to the situation, and we still continued to operate flights from Ben Gurion airport every day. There are constraints that lead to changes, and our desires do not always connect with the security reality in the State of Israel. By the way, this has applied to every Israeli and foreign airline that has been operating in Israel since last October," Blue Bird announced.