El Al
Strategy — Four Whys
EL AL — Four Whys Strategy
Last Updated: 2026-05-13
Urgency: HIGH — Fintech CEO (Levy Halevy) with conversion-native language + record $3.48B revenue but 26% profit decline + 9 new routes = most extensive summer schedule in history + active digital product hiring
Status: CMO Approved
Why 1: Why Do Anything?
Business Imperative: PROTECT MARGINS ON RECORD REVENUE BY QUANTIFYING DIGITAL BOOKING FRICTION DURING AGGRESSIVE ROUTE EXPANSION
EL AL is Israel's national carrier with ~$1B revenue, 2M monthly website visitors, and a custom booking platform serving IL/UK/DE/FR routes. The airline posted record $3.48B revenue in 2025 but profits fell 26% as foreign carriers re-entered Israeli routes, compressing margins. CEO Levy Halevy — appointed from fintech in September 2025 — has explicitly set digital experience as EL AL's primary competitive weapon with a 2026 booking conversion target.
Pain Dimensions:
Margin Compression Demands Digital Efficiency: With profits down 26% despite record revenue, EL AL cannot afford digital booking friction. Foreign airline re-entry to Israeli routes means customers have more alternatives. Every abandoned booking that could have converted is margin lost to competitors. At 2M monthly visitors, even 0.5% incremental conversion = thousands of additional bookings per month.
9 New Routes Without Baseline Measurement: EL AL's summer 2026 schedule — the most extensive in history — introduces 9 new destinations. Each new route creates localised booking flows for new audiences (language, currency, payment methods). Without session-level analytics, EL AL cannot measure whether these new route booking experiences convert or where they fail. New routes are the highest-risk period for digital friction.
Ancillary Revenue Leakage: Airlines generate 15-30% of revenue from ancillary digital upsell (seats, bags, meals, insurance). At $3.48B total revenue, ancillary digital channels likely exceed $500M. Checkout friction during ancillary upsell is invisible without session-level measurement — aggregate analytics show the page was loaded, not that the seat selector failed or the meal add-on timed out.
Matmid Loyalty App Friction: The enhanced Matmid loyalty app launched with mixed conversion outcomes. App store reviews flag friction in the booking flow. Each frustrated loyalty member represents a high-LTV customer experiencing quantifiable revenue loss that goes unmeasured.
Fintech CEO Expects Data-Driven Decisions: Levy Halevy comes from fintech where conversion analytics are foundational. He will expect the same rigour from EL AL's digital channels. A CEO mandate for DXA exists — the tooling to deliver it does not.
Quantified Cost of Inaction: At $3.48B revenue with 2M monthly visitors, conservative 0.5% booking friction = $17.4M annually. During route expansion, friction rates on new destination flows are typically 2-3x baseline. With 9 new routes launching simultaneously, the exposure window is significant.
Why 2: Why Now?
Compelling Events (stacked — 5 simultaneous triggers):
CEO digital experience mandate — 2026 budget cycle open: Levy Halevy has explicitly set digital experience as EL AL's primary competitive weapon with a 2026 booking conversion target. The mandate exists. The budget is allocated. QM fulfils the mandate.
9 new routes launching summer 2026: The most extensive schedule in EL AL history. New routes = new digital journeys with no baseline. The measurement window is NOW — before launch, to establish baseline, then during launch to detect friction in real-time.
Profit decline demands efficiency: 26% profit decline despite record revenue creates urgent pressure to extract maximum value from every digital visitor. CFO Gil Feldman (appointed December 2025) will be scrutinising every revenue leakage point.
Active hiring — Head of Digital Products and Senior UX roles: Confirmed LinkedIn postings indicate budget allocation and team building. Tool selection follows team building. QM should be positioned alongside the new hires, not after they've selected alternatives.
Matmid app friction is live and measurable: App store reviews provide external evidence of booking friction. QM can immediately quantify the revenue impact of the specific friction points users are complaining about — providing an instant ROI proof point.
Cost of Delay: Each month without session-level measurement during the busiest route expansion in EL AL history means ~166K sessions unmeasured per month. New route booking flows are highest-risk for friction. The CEO mandate window and hiring window are both open NOW — they will close as decisions lock.
Why 3: Why Us (Quantum Metric)?
Capability-to-Need Mapping:
| EL AL Need | QM Capability | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Quantify booking friction for fintech CEO | Revenue quantification (patented) | "Seat selection friction on EU routes costs $2.1M/month — here are the top 5 fixes ranked by $ impact" |
| Measure 9 new route booking experiences | 100% session capture, autocapture on custom platform | Pre-launch baseline + real-time friction detection on every new destination flow |
| Protect ancillary revenue during checkout | Full-funnel visibility including upsell flows | See exactly where ancillary add-ons (seats, bags, meals) fail or are abandoned |
| Fix Matmid app friction | Mobile SDK (lightweight: ~200KB Android, ~1MB iOS) | Session replay of the exact app friction users are complaining about in reviews |
| Deploy on custom booking platform without engineering sprints | Tag-based deployment, days not months | Live across EL AL's custom stack before summer schedule launch |
| AI-powered investigation at scale | Felix AI (autonomous investigation) | Autonomously surfaces booking friction patterns across 2M monthly visits |
Proof Points:
| Proof Point | Relevance to EL AL | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus | European airline, ancillary checkout failure recovery | Direct ancillary revenue recovery from DXA |
| Six Flags | Payment friction detection during high-volume periods | Prevented $4.8M annual loss |
| Vista | Mobile/omnichannel booking optimisation | +10% conversion |
Competitive Displacement: Current stack likely includes Adobe Analytics and Glassbox. Neither provides patented revenue quantification or AI-driven autonomous investigation. QM complements or displaces — positioned as the layer that turns analytics data into £/$ business impact.
Why 4: Why This Engagement Model?
Recommended Approach: Direct CEO-level engagement via conversion/analytics framing.
Entry Point: Levy Halevy (CEO) — fintech background means he speaks conversion language natively. Frame QM as the platform that delivers the data-driven booking optimisation he mandated. Secondary path through incoming Head of Digital Products.
Value Demonstration: Rapid proof-of-value on the Matmid app or one new route booking flow. Quantify the specific friction users are reporting in app store reviews — convert anecdotal complaints into $ impact within days of deployment.
Anchor Reference: Aer Lingus — European airline that used QM to recover ancillary checkout revenue. Direct parallel to EL AL's ancillary upsell priority during route expansion.
Deal Structure: Enterprise SaaS, annual contract. Pilot on app + one route, expand to full booking platform post-validation.
Outreach
EL AL — Levy Halevy (CEO)
5-Touch Outreach Sequence (LinkedIn + Email)
Date: 2026-05-15
Priority Rank: 2 of 7 (aviation brands)
Signal Stack: L2 (fintech CEO — conversion language native) + L2 (record $3.48B revenue, 26% profit decline) + L2 (9 new summer routes — most extensive schedule in history) + L2 (CEO mandate: digital experience as primary competitive weapon, 2026 booking conversion target) + L2 (Head of Digital Products + Senior UX hiring — vendor selection window) + L2 (Matmid app friction — app store complaints on booking flow)
Entry Strategy: CEO-level engagement — Halevy's fintech background means conversion/revenue quantification framing lands natively. No translation needed.
Proof Points: Aer Lingus (European airline, ancillary checkout recovery), Six Flags ($4.8M annual loss prevented — peak volume parallel)
Warm Route: None confirmed. Secondary path through incoming Head of Digital Products once hired.
Touch 1 — Connect (LinkedIn, <100 words)
contact: Levy Halevy
brand: EL AL
signal_refs: [2025-09-01 CEO appointment from fintech, 2026-01-01 9 new summer routes, 2026-02-01 digital experience mandate]
signal_levels: [L2, L2, L2]
touch_number: 1
channel: linkedin
status: draft
dnc_checked: true
concentric_rings_used: [Ring 1: CEO — owns the digital experience mandate, Ring 2: 9 new routes launching without booking conversion baseline]
Levy — bringing fintech rigour to a national carrier during its most aggressive route expansion is a rare combination. Nine new destinations launching simultaneously, each creating booking flows for audiences who've never used EL AL's digital platform before. In fintech, you'd never launch nine new product funnels without session-level conversion measurement. Airlines do it routinely — and absorb the invisible cost. Would be valuable to connect.
Touch 2 — Value (Email, <100 words)
contact: Levy Halevy
brand: EL AL
signal_refs: [2026-01-01 9 new summer routes, 2026-03-01 record $3.48B revenue profit down 26%]
signal_levels: [L2, L2]
touch_number: 2
channel: email
status: draft
dnc_checked: true
concentric_rings_used: [Ring 1: CEO — margin protection mandate, Ring 2: 9 new routes with no conversion baseline, Ring 4: new routes are highest-risk for booking friction]
Subject: 9 new routes, zero conversion baseline
Levy,
Each of EL AL's 9 new summer destinations creates a localised booking flow — new languages, payment methods, fare structures — for travellers who've never booked with EL AL digitally. Conversion performance on these routes is invisible until measured.
At 2M monthly visitors and $3.48B revenue with margins under pressure, a 0.5% booking friction rate across new routes represents millions in revenue that visitors intended to spend but couldn't complete. The difference between a route that's underperforming and a route with a broken payment path for German credit cards looks identical in aggregate analytics.
Session-level measurement separates the two.
Touch 3 — Proof Point (Email, <100 words)
contact: Levy Halevy
brand: EL AL
signal_refs: [2026-03-01 record revenue profit decline 26%, 2025-06-01 Aer Lingus ancillary recovery]
signal_levels: [L2, L2]
touch_number: 3
channel: email
status: draft
dnc_checked: true
concentric_rings_used: [Ring 2: 26% profit decline demands digital efficiency, Ring 3: Aer Lingus proof point — European airline ancillary recovery]
Subject: What Aer Lingus found in ancillary checkout
Levy,
Aer Lingus — European carrier, comparable booking architecture — deployed session-level revenue quantification on their ancillary checkout flows. They identified specific friction points in seat selection, baggage, and meal add-ons that were invisible to their existing analytics. Direct revenue recovery followed.
EL AL generates significant ancillary revenue across seats, bags, meals, and insurance. At $3.48B total revenue, ancillary digital channels likely exceed $500M. With profits down 26% despite record revenue, every checkout friction point that silently kills an ancillary upsell is margin you can recover — if you can see it.
The friction exists. The question is whether it's measured.
Touch 4 — Matmid + Hiring Window (Email, <100 words)
contact: Levy Halevy
brand: EL AL
signal_refs: [2025-10-01 Matmid app mixed conversion, 2026-03-01 Head of Digital Products hiring]
signal_levels: [L2, L2]
touch_number: 4
channel: email
status: draft
dnc_checked: true
concentric_rings_used: [Ring 2: Matmid app friction is live and externally visible, Ring 2: digital product hiring = tool selection window open]
Subject: Matmid app reviews are quantifiable
Levy,
EL AL's Matmid loyalty app launched enhanced features with mixed outcomes. App store reviews flag specific booking friction — seat selection failures, payment timeouts, flow abandonment. Each review represents a high-LTV loyalty member whose frustration is public but whose revenue impact is unmeasured.
In fintech, you'd instrument the exact session path and attach a dollar value to each failure. The same measurement is possible on Matmid — within days, not quarters. Lightweight mobile SDK (~200KB Android, ~1MB iOS), no engineering sprint required.
With a Head of Digital Products hire in progress, the tooling decision window is open now — before the new hire inherits an unmeasured stack.
Touch 5 — CTA (Email, <75 words)
contact: Levy Halevy
brand: EL AL
signal_refs: [2026-01-01 9 new summer routes, 2026-02-01 digital experience mandate, 2026-03-01 profit decline]
signal_levels: [L2, L2, L2]
touch_number: 5
channel: email
status: draft
dnc_checked: true
concentric_rings_used: [Ring 1: CEO — conversion mandate owner, Ring 2: summer routes launching imminently]
Subject: 15 minutes on booking conversion measurement
Levy,
Three signals converging: 9 new routes launching without conversion baselines, a 26% profit decline demanding digital efficiency, and a CEO mandate for booking conversion that needs measurement tooling to deliver.
Would 15 minutes be useful to compare how European airlines are approaching session-level booking measurement during route expansion? I can share the Aer Lingus pattern and what it means for EL AL's summer window specifically.
If the timing doesn't work, completely understand.
[Calendar link]