Privatisation plans at El Al have been thrown into confusion following a decision by the Israeli Government to call a general election in May.
Teams of El Al executives are continuing to work on the airline's prospectus document in the face of uncertainty on whether the process will be accelerated to push through privatisation ahead of the election, or delayed to an unspecified date.
The decision to hold the elections on 17 May was made while the already much delayed preparations to sell 49% of the Israeli national airline were under way. The plan was to get all the ministries involved to agree the terms of reference for the government's golden share and to begin the process of writing the prospectus.
El Al is pressing the government to start the process. "We had good financial results in 1998 and that is a perfect basis to begin the process," says Uri Sirkis, vice-president for business development.
Source: Flight International