El Al posts record-high $545 million profit in 2024, following wartime near-monopoly
Flagship airline almost quintuples 2023’s all-time high, with gains driven by North American routes that were eschewed by foreign carriers, but market dominance may not last long
El Al’s annual net profit grew nearly fivefold to a record high of about $545 million in 2024, with foreign carriers having suspended their Israel routes amid fighting with Iran and its terror proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, according to figures released by the flagship airline on Wednesday.
The airline’s previous record high of some $116 million was in 2023, driven by a fourth quarter that saw competition melt away after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, which started the war in Gaza. In the fourth quarter of 2024, El Al made a net profit of $130 million, compared with the $40 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
El Al’s revenue in 2024 was $3.4 billion, up some 37% from $2.5 billion in 2023, the company’s previous all-time high. The airline’s gains enabled it to reduce its net financial debt — total liabilities minus cash and liquid assets — from $1.6 billion at the end of 2023 to $75 million at the end of 2024.
Driving El Al’s gains in 2024 was its near-monopoly on flights to North America. The company said it controlled 97.5 percent of the market share for those routes, with planes 96% full on average.
The airline’s dominance could be jeopardized in 2025 as smaller Israeli competitors Israir and Arkia prepare to launch their own North American routes, and foreign carriers resume flights to Israel.
Amid accusations of price gouging, El Al’s CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia said in a statement that ticket prices rose “just 14%” on average per passenger in 2024.
The year “confronted us with complex national and business challenges, but we’ve proven our ability to handle them successfully,” she said. “Despite the challenges, we were able to maintain an aerial bridge between Israel and the world.”
Airfare to and from Israel has more than doubled at times after October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
A day after the massacre, fellow Iran-backed group Hezbollah began attacking Israel’s north on a near-daily basis. The attacks later extended to central areas, including near Ben Gurion International Airport — Israel’s main airport, near Tel Aviv — causing another slew of flight cancelations as Israel stepped up operations in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also launched attacks on Israel, and Iran itself launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April, spooking some of the foreign airlines that had planned to resume flights.
Iran attacked for the second and most recent time in October, again leading some foreign airlines to cancel flights.
A gradual reduction in regional tensions and ceasefires with Hezbollah and Hamas have prompted a number of major foreign airlines to announce a resumption of their flights to Ben Gurion Airport.
Among US carriers, United Airlines is set to resume its flight services to Israel on March 15, and Delta Air Lines is scheduled to restart its Tel Aviv-New York route on April 1. American Airlines has not yet announced a return of its Israel service.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
