El Al chief entreats PM: We’re in critical condition, don’t deny us a ventilator

Warning of the imminent collapse of Israel’s national carrier, the CEO of El Al has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene in its negotiations with the Finance Ministry to prevent thousands of layoffs and “the loss of Israel’s aviation independence.”

Writing the morning after Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon offered the battered airline a lifeline via a $400 million state-backed loan guarantee on condition it agrees to raft of extensive reforms, Gonen Usishkin says the Treasury was intentionally trying to break up El Al.

“We are asking you to instruct the Treasury to amend the outline it presented last night and to remove the unsuitable restrictions,” Usishkin writes to Netanyahu. “Last night, we received a document in which the Treasury made additional unsolicited requirements, the sole purpose of which was to send El Al into liquidation.”

The loan is conditioned on El Al’s owners injecting NIS 100 million ($28.5 million) into the company and carrying out further restructuring to reduce annual costs by at least $50 million.

The airline must also repay the government if its value rises after the crisis, the report said, noting that the workers’ union, likely to bear the brunt of the restructuring, must also sign off on the terms.