El Al Israel Airlines has agreed to repay its state loan of $45 loan by the end of the year according to Reuters.

The flag carrier took the loan from the government to help with expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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El Al aircraft photo gallery:

El Al Israel Airlines posted a full-year net loss of $413 million

This is down from the previous year’s loss of $531 million according to Flightglobal.

El Al Israel Airlines is the official airline of the Miss Universe 2021 competition that will take place for the first time in Eilat, Israel. Over the last few days, representatives from 80 countries and 5 continents have arrived in Israel ahead of the competition, including the current Miss Universe, Mis Andrea Maza, Mexico’s representative.

The international competition will be broadcast live to more than 170 countries and to 600 million viewers all over the world. This year, the competition will highlight the significant issue of the global warming as part of a green agenda that is also part of the values of the “Miss Universe” organization.

During their stay in Israel, the delegates were guests at EL AL and took part of the Miss Universe campaign to encourage tourism to Israel and to strengthen the EL AL brand around the world.

The event and the participants are hosted in Israel by the Israel Ministry of Tourism.

Even though Israel is currently closed to tourists now, however, the delegation arrived under COVID-19 regulations and received special approvals to enter Israel.

El Al also announced that the representative of the United Arab Emirates will also compete for the title of Miss Universe and will participate in the event in Israel alongside the representative from Morocco who will also compete, for the first time, in 40 years.

Israel is banning all foreigners from entering the country for the next two weeks due to the spread of the new Omicron variant.

Israelis entering back into the country, including those who are vaccinated, will be required to quarantine on their entry.

The Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency’s phone-tracking technology will be used to track all interactions of people with the new variant according to Reuters.

Besides Israel and South Africa, the new variant has already been discovered in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

El Al and other Israeli airlines are offering flexible travel and ticket changes.