The Board of Directors of El Al Israel Airlines has announced the appointment of Levy Halevy (55) as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Halevy, who currently serves as the CEO of the payment card company CAL (Israel Credit Cards), will be stepping down from that role to take the helm at Israel’s flag carrier, replacing the outgoing CEO, Dina Ben Tal Ganancia.

Halevy’s selection signals a strategic shift by El Al’s owner, Kenny Rosenberg, to bring in a leader with a strong financial background rather than someone from the aviation or marketing sectors. Halevy is a proven financial executive, credited with transforming CAL into the most profitable company among Israeli payment card firms during his seven-year tenure. Prior to that, he was a senior executive at Discount Bank. This appointment follows the recent finalization of the deal to transfer ownership of CAL from Discount Bank to the Union Group and Harel Insurance.

Halevy takes the reins at a pivotal time. While Ben Tal Ganancia is lauded for dramatically improving El Al’s financial standing, the new CEO will immediately face several significant hurdles:

El Al benefited from periods of near-exclusivity over the past two years due to the regional conflict. Halevy must now navigate the return of international airlines to the Israeli market, a development expected to erode the record profits the company achieved during the war.

He will be tasked with steering the airline through the volatile and changing landscape of the global aviation market.

Halevy will need to maintain the relative industrial peace established by his predecessor with the various labor unions, following years of past conflicts.

El Al already has a working relationship with Halevy through a partnership between CAL’s subsidiary, Diners, and the airline’s frequent flyer program, which issues the Fly-Card payment card. Furthermore, El Al stands to gain financially from the CAL sale, as it is set to receive 166 million ILS from Discount Bank for an option it held in CAL shares as part of the payment card partnership.

Photo: Inbal Mramari