Israel's airline El Al faces uncertain future

Israeli airline El Al will not be receiving a major investment it was counting on, and as a result, its future is very unclear.

With the airline operating deep in the red for the past two years, analysts said that unless El Al moves quickly to either raise money or cut costs, the airline could find itself in serious financial trouble.

El Al has been a perennial money-loser, usually losing tens of millions of dollars a year.

The last time it made a profit was in 2010.

The airline has not been state-owned since 2003, and around half the company's shares are currently in the public's hands, with the balance owned by a private investor group, the government, and the Histadrut labor union.

The airline has about 6,000 employees and 40 planes, one of the highest ratio of employee to passenger of any airline in the world but Still, the airline has lost money in 2013, and analysts say that the only way to make El Al profitable is to reduce the workforce.