El Al is Israel’s national airline. Although privatized nearly a decade ago, it is still seen as the people’s airline – you come home, back to the Holy Land.

For all the cuteness, El Al has not had an easy history. For years, the joke was that its name stood for “Every Landing Always Late”. The acronym actually means ‘skywards’). The company has had to bear extremely high security costs. (Israelis noted that 9/11 could not have happened on El Al planes). Due to the Arab boycott, it is restricted from flying directly to parts of the Far East, thus increasing travel time and costs.

On top of all this, the Israeli government has agreed to a policy of ‘open skies’ with the EU, which will force down the prices of tickets. Easy Jet has long been ahead of the game, continuing to add more and more flights to Tel Aviv.

And despite all this, El Al is in the money. Last week,

The carrier reported $643.29 million revenue, up 6% or $37.52 million from the corresponding quarter. Gross profit rose 11% to $159.74 million and net profit soared 54% or $20.31 million to $57.86 million. Sales expenses were $56.41 million for the quarter.

The reasons for the massive and continuing improvement in the financial statements are varied, including seasonal factors, a new hedging policy for purchasing fuel and additional government support for security costs. In parallel, the company has adopted a more aggressive pricing attitude to meet the challenges of increased competition.

As the land of miracles has shown, even smaller international airlines can make profits.