Israel’s airline El Al announced Wednesday that it will be testing direct flights to Melbourne, Australia.
In a report to the stock exchange this morning, El Al also announced a significant 30% decline in net profit in the last quarter, from $42 million to $27 million in the corresponding quarter last year – following which the company’s stock plunged 19% as trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Spring.
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El Al has announced plans to launch pilot flights during the second quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals. The flights will take place on Dreamliner 787. The flight from Israel will take about 16 hours and 45 minutes, while the flight from Australia – 17 hours and 45 minutes. This is the longest flight that an Israeli company will make.
The company also reported that at the end of the third quarter of 2019, 12 new Dreamliner 787 -9 were operating in the company’s fleet. By the end of the first quarter of 2020, the arrival of four additional Dreamliner 787-8 planes would be completed. At the beginning of the year, all 767-300 aircraft subsequently leaving service.
According to the announcement, El Al’s revenue for the quarter increased to about $647 million. Operating expenses for the quarter totaled approximately $505 million, similar to the corresponding quarter last year. El Al stated in a statement that the direct line to Tokyo will open in March 2020 and that direct lines to Dublin in Ireland and Dusseldorf in Germany will also be opened this summer.
El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin said: “Despite the competition in Ben Gurion Airport, the company managed to increase its revenue and improve its market share by 2%, with the number of passengers increasing by 6.5%.
About a month ago, the Australian Qantas Airlines Dreamliner 787 made one of the longest direct flights in history – 19.5 hours and 16,200 miles from New York to Sydney. The company conducted the flight with the aim of examining the impact on passengers and crew of an ultra-long flight as part of a plan to test new routes from Australia’s east coast to New York and London.
