Chutzpah Airline

摘要

Managerial grit that sometimes borders on cockiness seems to keep El Al Israel Airlines aloft against all commercial odds as perhaps the ultimate ethnic niche carrier. Maybe it's a mindset composed of equal portions of self-reliance and chutzpah (a Yiddish expression loosely translated as utter nerve or supreme self-confidence) that somehow translates into viability for the small airline with the outsized reputation. It flies point-to-point to 40 cities worldwide from tiny Israel with just 32 aircraft—of which it owns 29—and to additional cities via codeshare partners American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Swiss, Iberia, Thai and others.