The salaries of 15 executives at El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), the company's VPs and CEO Gonen Usishkin will be cut by 20%, with immediate effect. Members of El Al's board of directions, including chairman Eli Defes, will also take a 20% pay cut.
The measure follows El Al's decision not to employ 100 stewards and 60 pilots still in training courses. Usishkin announced that 1,000 of El Al's 6,360 employees would be laid off because of the coronavirus crisis.
El Al's employees held a protest early this week calling on the Israeli government to aid the airline, which has already lost tens of millions of dollars due to plunging demand and closing down of routes.
El Al reported last week that flight cancellations and a halt in orders, "mainly for East Asian destinations," would reduce its first quarter revenue by $70 million. In its notice to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the airline stated that it was "closely monitoring global development concerning the coronavirus and assessing the consequences for its activity." The company has also cancelled routes to Italy and a range of European cities.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 4, 2020
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