Almost a month ago, El Al Israel Airlines announced the appointment of professor Israel (Izzy) Borovich as chairman of the board. Professor Borovich, who is based in Tel Aviv, had been president and CEO of Arkia Israeli Airlines Ltd. since 1989, and president and CEO of Arkia’s parent company, Knafaim Arkia Holdings Ltd. (“Arkia Group”) since 1993. Arkia Group is a multi-service travel company that includes substantial cargo, leasing ,and maintenance operations.

In December 2004, Arkia Group increased its El Al holdings from about 22% to 40%. It holds an option to buy an additional 12%, raising its El Al ownership to 52%. At a breakfast that was followed by a news conference in New York on Friday, Mr. Borovich said that this change should help counter the widespread perception of El Al as a state-owned company. He said that the Israeli government now owned about 30%, and that the Arkia Group fully in tended to exercise the option for the additional 12%, that expires in June 2007.

Professor Borovich first came to America in the ’60s by boat, “because I couldn’t afford flying,” he said. He holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in operations research from the Poly Tech Institute of New York, and was professor of information systems at Tel Aviv University for 30 years. He also served as chairman of the university’s Information Systems Program and founded its Transportation and Aviation Center. Professor Borovich is also chairman of the board of Granit Hacarmel Investments, Ltd. and Sonol Oil Company.

Professor Borovich said that Haim Romano has been selected to be the airline’s president. For the last 14 months, Mr. Romano served as the executive deputy general manager of Partner, a telecommunications company in Israel. From 1996 to 1998, he was director of human resources of Israel’s Central Security Service (Shabac), and served for 22 years in the Israel Defense Forces, retiring with the rank of Colonel. He holds a master’s degree in labor and international relations and executive management from Harvard University. Professor Borovich said that Mr. Romano’s selection, which requires approval by EL AL’s board of directors, was based on his qualifications and not on political considerations.

Professor Borovich said that El Al’s goal is to be both a global airline and a niche carrier, catering to an international public, but also to continue its long tradition of tailoring services to specific segments of the public.

“It’s easy to see why Israel was always a gateway into Asia,” he said, “and we believe we can again make Israel a gate into Asia and the Far East.”

El Al, Israel’s national carrier since 1948, does not operate flights between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday, or fly on major Jewish holidays. Asked by The New York Sun if the airline’s changing ownership structure would mean a change in its observance of religious limitations, Mr. Borovich said that, as the grandson of a rabbi, he was acutely aware of the sensitivity of such issues, and that no immediate changes were planned.

He added that the industry was increasingly moving in the direction of alliances, and that El Al would look carefully at how to take advantage of this trend while remaining sensitive to how such alliances might be perceived by the public.

El Al has been successful in weathering aviation’s recent tribulations. It announced a net profit of $47.4 million for the third quarter of 2004 and a 10.5% increase in revenue over the same period in 2003. Professor Borovich said that the recent increase in tourism to Israel and cost cutting measures helped increase revenue, while the use of hedging has helped the airline cope with the rise in fuel prices.

Nira Dror, El Al’s general manager for North and Central America, called El Al’s privatization, “a big milestone in the aviation industry in Israel” that would have a positive effect on the airline’s future.

On the subject of security, Ms. Dror said, without going into specifics, that the airline had recently made “a great investment in technology” to ensure a smoother processing of passengers.