El Al

El Al Israel Airlines (אל על, to the sky in Hebrew, إل عال, Arabic) is the national airline of Israel. The company, which is based at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, operates international scheduled flights to Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East.

History

The airline was created on November 15, 1948 and began operations in August 1949 with a service between Tel Aviv, Rome and Paris, which was extended the following year to London. Direct flights to New York began on June 15, 1961, when its Boeing 707 aircraft set the record for the longest direct commercial flight. On May 24, 1991, an El Al Boeing 747 aircraft carried a record number of 1,087 passengers: Ethiopian Jews who flew from Addis Ababa to Israel as part of Operation Solomon.

The first phase of the privatization of El Al began in June 2003 when 15% of the company's shares were traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company Knafaim-Arkia Consortium, owner of Arkia Israel Airlines, acquired a significant part of El Al in 2004 and hopes to acquire the rest. The current owners of the company are Knafaim-Arkia Consortium (40%), private investors (30%) and the State (30%). El Al employs 5,417 people.

Destinations

El Al is known for its strict security measures. Only once in its history has a plane been hijacked. It is one of the few airlines that passes luggage through decompression chambers.

Incidents and accidents

• In 1968, an El Al plane was abducted by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The plane was heading to Rome when it was diverted to Algeria. Negotiations lasted forty days. The hostages were released but the kidnappers were not prosecuted. This has been the only successful abduction of an El Al flight.
• In 1970 armed guards managed to avoid an attempt to hijack an El Al plane.
• On 4 October 1992, flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200F cargo crashed in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The three crew members, one passenger and 39 people on land were killed. The inner motor of the right wing was fired from the wing and the outer motor of the same wing was taken. The wing's edge of attack was damaged and when the pilots were preparing to land the plane was rushed to the ground.

Fleet

Current Fleet

The El Al fleet is composed in October 2023 by:

Starfleet of El Al

Aeronave	Service	Orders	Options	Butacas
				F	C	And	Total
Boeing 737-800	16	-	-	-	16	126	142
Boeing 737-800F	1	-	-	-
Boeing 737-958ER	8	-	-	-	16	156.	172
Boeing 777-258ER	6	-	-	12	35	232	279
Boeing 787-8	4	-	-	-	20	35	183
Boeing 787-9	12	-	6	-	32	28	222
Total	47	-	6

As of October 2023, the Airline's fleet has an average age of 12.5 years

Historical Fleet