El Al Israel Airlines (TASE: ELAL) had a dream year in 2024, posting a net profit of $545 million, and CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia saw her compensation cost rise 10% to NIS 6.3 million. This comprised a salary of NIS 2.3 million, a bonus of NIS 3.6 million, and stock-based compensation of NIS 600,000.
Company chairperson Amikam Ben-Zvi also benefitted from an impressive jump in compensation, by nearly 29%, to NIS 5.4 million. This comprised a salary of NIS 2.1 million, a bonus of NIS 2.9 million, and stock-based compensation of nearly NIS 500,000.
Other senior managers at El Al were also well treated. Ronen Galperin, CEO of the Matmid Frequent Flyer club, enjoyed compensation costing NIS 4.1 million; the compensation cost of VP Operations, Hovav Ben-David was NIS 3.4 million; and that of VP Sales and Tourism Yarom Vadish was NIS 3.3 million.
It wasn’t just the senior management that benefitted from a substantial rise in pay. El Al has four unions: pilots, maintenance, flight stewards, and managers. These shared a huge bonus based on the profit before tax for 2024 of $678 million, amounting to $104 million (a small part of which goes to senior managers’ bonuses), 5.5 times the bonus in 2023. In 2022, the employees did not receive a bonus at all.
The highest bonus went to the pilots: 6% of the pre-tax profit, or nearly $41 million. El Al employed some 600 pilots at the end of 2024, each of whom received a bonus of $67,600 (NIS 247,000 at the current exchange rate).
The remaining workforce consists of flight stewards (1,363); service workers (1,470), maintenance workers (1,083), and others (1,018). The company’s compensation expense for 2024 was $617.7 million, 14% more than in 2023.
El Al employees receive an impressive benefits package that includes, for example, flights at the company’s expense or at a 90% discount for a pilot and family. The list of benefits also includes contributions to car license fees, tuition fees, car maintenance, telephone, uniform cleaning costs, dental insurance, nursing care insurance, payment for “extra hours” (in addition to overtime), and more.
Talking to “Globes”, sources at El Al said, “In 2018, when we negotiated with the company, the highest profit that it had posted at that time was $70 million, and so when we made the bonuses agreement, we knew that the company didn’t have profits, and we wanted to benefit from any profits, if and when they arose. This year there was a big leap, and so, because of the mechanism, all the workers received ‘compensation’, and we’re glad about that.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 12, 2025.
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