Israel’s national airline, El Al, is once again breaking its own records and ending the third quarter of 2024 with a net profit of 187 million UDS, a 3.6-fold jump compared to 52 million USD in the corresponding quarter last year. The result is very impressive, as the previous two quarters of this year were also new records for El Al, with earnings of 81 million USD in the first quarter and 147 million USD in the second quarter.
El Al also continues to break records in terms of revenue, with the third quarter recording revenue of 1 billion USD, a 20% jump compared to the previous quarter, which was also a record for the company, and a 43% jump compared to the corresponding quarter last year. Recall that in the first half of the year, El Al recorded revenue of almost 1.6 billion USD. EBITDAR more than doubled to 360 million USD.
The very strong results are, of course, due to the summer season, which combined with the fact that El Al, controlled by Kenny Rozenberg and managed by Dina Ben Tal Ganancia, continues to hold a huge market share at Ben Gurion Airport following the “Iron Swords” war and the cessation of flights to Israel by many foreign airlines. In the third quarter of the year, El Al carried about 43% of passengers at Ben Gurion Airport (about 670,000 passengers per month), and the trend continues into the fourth quarter of the year.
El Al’s stock has surged by about 220% in the past year. The company’s market value now stands at about 3.4 billion ILS (including a capital raising of half a billion shekels). The main beneficiary of the stock’s rise is, of course, the owner, Kenny Rozenberg, who holds about 46.2% of El Al’s shares, worth 1.6 billion ILS.