El Al’s new price list leads to increase in ticket sales

Eli Cohen, Vice President of Commercial & Industry Affairs, in a speech at Utravel in Ramat Gan.  “During times of crisis you need to be creative, El Al is hungry and focused and will not allow travel agents who don’t agree on how we operate to obstruct our marketing methods.”

During a speech given at Utravel agency in Ramat Gan this week, Eli Cohen, the Vice President of Commercial & Industry Affairs of El Al told those assembled that the airline had already managed to increase significantly the number of ticket sales thanks to the introduction of a new price list. 

He added that “that “during times of crisis it is necessary to operate creatively” and gave as an example the two day General Election period when El Al had managed to sell about 18 thousand tickets.

He complimented Utravel on the way they operated and said that their cooperation with El Al was an example of how other agents should work.

According to Cohen, there has already been a significant increase in the number of overseas travelers and in the near future El Al is planning on additional special offers. “Our aim is to create competition against our foreign competitors and the new special offers are aimed at attracting new business customers, this is one of the steps taken in order to achieve our target”.  Cohen added that apart from the special offers, another goal is to restore El Al’s market share.

Cohen also added that whenever he met with agents, he was inundated with questions regarding the company’s operations.  He asked that agents not put up barriers to block the company’s marketing solutions, such as El Al’s internet activity.  “I know that you are angry with our internet operations, but in the near future we intend to go to the agents throughout the country and to offer them additional methods to increase sales”.

Cohen:  “We feel that because there is an increase in El Al’s sales, actually in the business and first class sectors, we are trying to refine the new price list.  We have seen agents selling tickets for the United States and Brazil without showing the customer the price.  Cooperation is supposed to work both ways”.

Earlier, Professor Aviad Yisraeli, Head of the department of hotel and tourism at Ben Gurion University forecast that the tourist industry had not yet reached its low point.  “In a region that goes from crisis to crisis such as Israel, the policies of the government must be linked closely to those of the travel industry.”