Israeli carrier El Al profit rose in first-quarter on reduced competition
TEL AVIV, May 21 (Reuters) - El Al Israel Airlines (ELAL.TA), opens new tab reported a 19% rise in quarterly profit as it continues to benefit from fewer carriers flying to Tel Aviv due to Israel's ongoing war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
Israel's flag carrier said on Wednesday it earned $96 million in the first quarter of 2025, up from $80.5 million a year earlier. Revenue grew 5% to $774 million.
It cited a rise in its load factor to 94.3% from 92.6% as well as an increase in capacity due to an expansion of leased aircraft and a decline in jet fuel costs.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
State Dept says current US visas from travel ban countries will not be revoked
The State Department instructed U.S. embassies and consulates on Friday not to revoke visas previously issued to people from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries now under President Donald Trump's new travel ban, which goes into effect next week. In a cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic missions, the department said 'no action should be taken for issued visas which have already left the consular section' and that 'no visas issued prior to the effective date should be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.' However, visa applicants from affected countries whose applications have been approved but have not yet received their visas will be denied, according to the cable, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting on Monday. Still, the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, suggests there should be no issue for current visa holders from the affected countries entering the United States after the restrictions take effect on June 9 at midnight ET. During Trump's first term, a hastily written executive order ordering the denial of entry to citizens of mainly Muslim countries created chaos at numerous airports and other ports of entry, prompting successful legal challenges and major revisions to the policy. The new proclamation, which Trump signed on Wednesday, appears designed to beat any court challenge by focusing on the visa application process. Rubio's cable says the only people who should be denied entry into the U.S. are those currently outside the United States who do not have a valid visa on the effective date. Despite Rubio's cable, physically entering the United States at a port of entry is not controlled by the State Department. It is up to the Department of Homeland Security and the discretion of individual Customs and Border Patrol agents to determine if a visa holder is admitted or turned away. The visa ban applies to people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Other visa restrictions will apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Some exceptions apply only for specific countries, like Afghanistan. Others are for most of the countries on the list, or are more general and unclear, like the policies for foreign visitors planning to come to the U.S. for the 2026 Word Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, two of the events Trump has said he is excited to host. Rubio's cable said criteria for the exemptions under a national security waiver would be issued soon.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Gol exits Chapter 11 with plans to add new routes and expand fleet
SAO PAULO, June 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian airline Gol ( opens new tab formally exited its bankruptcy proceedings in the United States on Friday, setting the stage for fleet expansion and new flights and routes within Brazil and other countries, Chief Executive Officer Celso Ferrer told Reuters. In 2024, Gol became the second Brazilian airline, after Latam in 2020, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as the sector grappled with debt burdens, a steep decline in passenger numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and aircraft delivery delays. Azul , a Gol competitor, filed for Chapter 11 last month. Despite Azul's financial struggles, talks over a potential partnership between the carrier and Gol are ongoing, Ferrer said. But a final deal "will only happen if it adds value and results, whether through routes or growth. If it's better for everyone," he added. Discussions regarding the business combination, which were formalized with a memorandum of understanding last January, are being managed by Abra Group, the majority investor in both Gol and Colombia's Avianca.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump brings the BOOM! New order opens skies across US to supersonic flights
President Donald Trump has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to scrap a longstanding ban on supersonic air travel across the U.S. and replace it with a to-be-determined set of regulations that will allow faster-than-sound travel so long as the sonic booms it creates do not breach certain noise limitations. In an executive order signed on Friday, Trump directed the FAA administrator to begin the process of repealing a section of the Code of Federal Regulations that prohibits anyone in the United States from flying a civilian aircraft 'at a true flight Mach number greater than 1.' That regulation was imposed in April 1973, at a time when the British and French governments were jointly developing Concorde, a supersonic airliner that had a cruising speed in excess of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. Because aircraft that break the sound barrier create shockwaves that produce loud sounds, known as sonic booms, the U.S. government banned supersonic flight over the U.S. out of concern over disruptive noise from supersonic jets criss-crossing the country. As a result, Concorde was limited to subsonic speeds when arriving or leaving American airports, only crossing the sound barrier during transit over the Atlantic Ocean on routes between New York's JFK airport and London. Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters that Trump's order 'seeks to revolutionize supersonic aviation in the United States' by allowing for modern aircraft to fly faster than sound over the continental U.S. 'The US used to be the global leader in this technology, but stifling regulations have grounded progress for generations. The reality is that Americans should be able to fly from New York to LA in under four hours,' he said. Kratsios added that 'advances in aerospace engineering, material science and noise reduction' by new startups working on faster-than-sound passenger aircraft can make supersonic travel 'safe, sustainable and commercially viable' and noted that the longstanding American ban on such flights had ' grounded supersonic passenger flight and weakened our global competitiveness in aviation.' 'Today's order fixes that,' he said. Trump's order comes just weeks after a pair of Republicans in Congress, Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, introduced legislation to direct the FAA to repeal and replace the current supersonic flight ban within a year. That legislation will no longer be necessary, as the Trump executive order directs the FAA to withdraw the ban within 180 days and launch a notice-and-comment period for replacement regulations that would be based on a noise standard rather than a strict speed limit. According to a senior administration official, the function of the new regulations would be 'to replace the effective speed standard with instead an interim noise standard, and then to have a longer term process to publish a Notice of Proposed Rule Making to result in a final rule.' That process would be 'coordinated through the White House [and] through the National Science and Technology Council' and would be based on research and development that has been going on at NASA, the Department of Defense, and 'elsewhere within the federal government,' the official said. Trump's effort to enable supersonic flight across the U.S. follows the success of the first flight of a civilian supersonic aircraft since Concorde 216 (registered as G-BOAF) made its' final flight to Bristol Filton Airport in 2003. In January, Boom Supersonic's XB-1 aircraft reached a speed of Mach 1.122 during a 34-minute flight over California's Mojave Desert. The test flight, just eight days into Trump's second term, produced no audible sonic boom — or at least not one that was heard from the ground during the flight. The company says its' proposed Overture passenger jet will cut a trip from Los Angeles to Washington to three hours and 15 minutes, more than an hour less than the current duration of such a flight, while producing no sonic booms that are audible from the ground. It attributes this to atmospheric effects that cause the sound to reflect off layers in the atmosphere and travel upward, rather than downward. It also claims to be able to cut flights over water by even more time by reaching even higher speeds.
