Israeli flag carrier El Al's record-breaking year continued as its third-quarter revenue continued to grow, surpassing its Q2 revenue by 20%, the company said. Q3 revenue stood at just over one billion dollars.
The company's net profit was $187 million this quarter, compared to $52 million in the same quarter last year.
The airline has seen demand for its tickets explode as the Israel-Hamas war has caused foreign airlines to cancel flights to Israel, leaving El Al with near-monopoly status. Many Israelis are reluctant to book with other airlines even if these tickers are available, fearing foreign carriers will cancel flights if the security situation changes.
El Al also said it was able to increase its available seat kilometers (ASK), a measure of its passenger carrying capacity, by 15% in Q3 as the company worked to meet increased demand.
The company's revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK) increased by 23% in this quarter when compared to the same quarter last year, the company added, saying that this was "primarily due to a significant and unusual increase in the occupancy rate."
Increased demand and occupancy rate
This increase was also due to a 16% increase in income per passenger when compared to Q3 last year (a 2% increase when compared to last quarter), the company said. This growth stems from increased demand and high occupancy rate, the company said.
The company's increased net profits stem from multiple factors including increased revenue per available seat kilometer, increased occupancy, increased income from freight, from pulling planes off lines with lower demand as planes were diverted to lines with higher demand, and increased available set kilometers, the company said.
El Al CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia announced Wednesday that the airline will continue to offer flat-rate fairs to a number of destinations from which passengers can connect to other airlines. The company will also continue to cap prices for its flights.
Setting fixed prices on flights to the four destinations - Larnaca, Athens, Dubai, and Vienna has created flexibility for passengers but also caused the flights to sell out in advance, Ben Tal Ganancia said, adding that this creates additional issues.
"Throughout all the months of the war, and especially in the current quarter, we continue to experience heightened demand for El Al flights, significantly exceeding the seat capacity the company is able to offer. We are constantly making operational efforts to increase seat availability as much as possible in order to find solutions and provide the best possible service to passengers traveling to and from Israel," she added.