El Al

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El Al Israel Airlines
File:NewElAlLogo.JPG
IATA ICAO Callsign
LY ELY ELAL
Founded1948
HubsBen Gurion International Airport
Frequent-flyer programMatmid
Fleet size35 (+8/9 orders)
Destinations48
HeadquartersIsrael Tel Aviv, Israel
Key peopleHaim Romano (CEO)
Israel Borovich (Chairman)
Websitehttp://www.elal.com/

El Al Israel Airlines (Hebrew: אל על, "To Above") is the flag carrier and largest airline of Israel.[1][2] From their hub at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, El Al operates international scheduled passenger flights to Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America as well as connecting flights from Ben Gurion Airport to Eilat.[3] The airline also has a cargo branch, El Al Cargo, which became independent in 1997.[4]

Since their first flight in September 1948 on which Haim Weizman, the President of Israel, was flown to Tel Aviv from Geneva, the airline has grown dramatically and now serves over forty destinations on four continents.[5] Over its history, El Al has been very much involved in humanitarian rescue efforts of Jews from many nations including Ethiopia, India and Yemen and has set a number of world-records including being the first airline to complete a trans-atlantic flight in a Boeing 767 and operating what was at the time the longest ever non-stop commercial flight with non-stop service from Tel Aviv to New York. El Al has the reputation of being the most secure airline in the world, having foiled many hijacking attempts.[6]

History

Early years

El Al Boeing 777-200ER

El Al's first flight was in September 1948 when the first President of Israel, Haim Weizman was flown to Tel Aviv from Geneva.[5] The airline established itself as a scheduled carrier 15 November of that year. Its first aircraft were two unpressurized DC-4's purchased from American Airlines using funds from the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations. The first aircraft was flown to Israel by Capt. Maurice Kouffman, a former pilot in the US Air Transport Command during WWII. His wife, Marilyn, was the stewardess on the flight which arrived at Lod Airport on April 3, 1949. Its first international flight was from Tel Aviv to Paris on July 31 of that year.[7] This service was extended a year later to London. In the early 1950s, the airline carried over 160,000 immigrants to Israel from India, Iran, and Yemen as part of Operation Magic Carpet and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.[5] On 27 July 1955 an El Al Lockheed Constellation was shot down over Bulgaria. All of the crew and passengers were killed.[8]

On 15 June 1961, the airline set the world record for the longest non-stop commercial flight with the introduction of non-stop Tel Aviv to New York services. Its its Boeing 707, covered 5,760 miles in 9 hours and 33 minutes.[5] On 23 July 1968, the first and only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft took place when a 707 carrying 10 crew and 38 passengers was taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The aircraft was enroute from Rome, Italy, to Lod, Israel. The hijackers diverted it to Algiers. The negotiations extended over 40 days and both the hijackers and the 21 Israeli hostages ultimately went free.[9] It later emerged that the hijackers left Beirut armed, with the full consent of the Lebanese authorities. Accordingly, Israel held Lebanon accountable, and retaliated on 28 December 1968 when it raided Lebanon's airport and destroyed 13 planes on the ground, most of which belonged to Middle East Airlines.

1970s and 1980s

El Al Boeing 747-200 in the superseded livery

El Al continued to grow as more refugees migrated to Israel. In 1970, passengers and crew foiled a hijacking attempt on an El Al aircraft as part of the Dawson's Field hijackings.[10] Another attempt was thwarted as part of the Hindawi Affair on 18 April 1986. In this case, a pregnant Irishwoman named Anne Mary Murphy was about to board an El Al flight at London's Heathrow Airport when her bag was found to contain 3 pounds of plastic explosives. The explosives had been planted by her fiancé Nezar Hindawi who was to go on a separate flight. Hindawi was jailed for 45 years, the longest sentence ever delivered by a British court. Murphy, who had been duped, later gave birth to their daughter. There was evidence that Syrian officials were involved and as a result, Britain cut off diplomatic relations with Syria.[11]

April 1980 saw the launch of non-stop El Al service from Tel Aviv to Cairo following the peace agreement between the two nations.[5] In March 1984 the airline entered the record books once again with the first international Boeing 767 flight when they flew from Montreal to Tel Aviv.[5] In May 1988, El Al operated what is to this day its longest non-stop flight in history from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, a journey of 7,000 miles in 13 hours and 41 minutes.[5]

1990s and early 2000s

As the airline continued to grow, El Al continued to carry out humanitarian missions rescuing Jews from around the world. On 24 May 1991 an El Al Boeing 747 airlifted a record-breaking 1,087 passengers, Ethiopian Jews flying from Addis Ababa to Israel as part of Operation Solomon.[12]

On 4 October, 1992, El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200F cargo plane, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kluitberg flats in Bijlmermeer, a neighbourhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The three crew members, one passenger, and 43 on the ground were killed.[13] It was in 1997 that El Al's cargo branch became an independent entity.[14] In February 1995 El Al left the technical receivership it had been operating under since 1982[15] and in June 1996, another milestone was hit with the inaugaral flight from Israel to Amman, Jordan.[5] El Al's first Boeing 777 took off for the first time in March 2000, and the first phase of a long delayed privatisation was initiated in June 2003 when 15% of the airline's shares were listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.[5] Arkia Israel Airlines parent company, Knafaim-Arkia Holdings, acquired a large stake in mid-2004 and intended to take complete ownership.[5] Today, the owners are Knafaim-Arkia Holdings (40%), private investors (30%) and the state (30%).[5]

On 4 July, 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet shot six Israelis at El Al's ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport. Two of the victims died. Although the gunman was not linked to any terrorist group, Hadayet, an Egyptian, espoused anti-Israeli views and was opposed to U.S. policy in the Middle East.[16] This led the FBI to classify the shooting as a terrorist act, one of the few on U.S. soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks. On 23 October, 2003 an El Al Boeing 767 flying from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles via Toronto was diverted to Mirabel International Airport and then on to Hamilton Airport, where RCMP tactical teams were ready. The diversion was the result of a "severe security threat," which was later clarified as a possible surface-to-air missile attack on the aircraft upon landing in Toronto.[17]

Recent History

File:View of Apron at TLV.jpg
El Al aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport as seen from the Dan Lounge

On 7 June, 2006, the Swiss Attorney General reported that seven North Africans were arrested in connection with a conspiracy to blow up an unspecified El Al flight the following day.[18] At the time of the arrest, El Al's flights between Tel Aviv and London flew over the area where a ground-to-air missile was discovered.

El Al has had success in serving the needs of the religious Jewish clientele who fly to and from Israel: it serves only kosher food (by most definitions), long-haul flights typically feature passenger-led prayer-services, and as a rule, El Al has not flown on Shabbat. In the aftermath of a November 2006 strike that temporarily shut down Tel-Aviv airport, El Al decided to fly some of their planes on Shabbat in order to get back on schedule. This led to a large-scale Haredi boycott of the airline. On 5 January 2007 a deal was signed between El Al and the Haredi community, stipulating that El Al will not fly on Shabbat.[19]

In early 2007, El Al opened a new King David Lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport. New lounges at Heathrow Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport will open later this year.[20] Today, the company employs 5,417 staff globally and boasts a fleet of over 30 aircraft.[21]

Destinations

Further information: [[:El Al destinations]]

El Al serves destinations on four continents with a particularly developed network to Europe. The airline serves a number of gateway North American cities and has recently extended this to include direct service to Los Angeles and Miami. Over the past few years, El Al has expanded its destinations to cover the Far East, while retaining its limited coverage of Africa.[22][23]

Cargo

The airline also has a cargo branch, El Al Cargo, which became independent in 1997.[4]

Security

El Al has the reputation of being the most secure airline in the world[24] for the following reasons:

On the plane

Inside one of the company's Boeing jetliners

Approximately six undercover agents (formerly two; exact numbers are never given for security purposes) accompany each international El Al flight, sitting amongst passengers, with hidden firearms.[25] Most El Al pilots are former Israeli Air Force fighter pilots, and all El Al flight crew members are trained in hand-to-hand combat. In fact, most El Al employees have served in the Israel Defense Force (since national service is compulsory in Israel for most citizens).[26]

The cockpit in El Al's aircraft have double doors to prevent entry by unauthourized people. A code is required to access the doors, and the second door will only be opened after the first has closed and the person has been identified by the captain or first officer.[26] Furthermore, there are reinforced steel floors separating the passenger cabin from the baggage hold.[27] This is intended to strengthen the plane in case of an explosion in the hold or vice versa. The El Al fleet is also the only commercial airline fleet in the world to be equipped with anti-missile countermeasures (the radar-based Flight Guard system). Switzerland has refused El Al flights landing rights because of fears that flares dropped by such an automated system might cause fires on the ground near airports, and other European governments have expressed similar views.[28] El Al does not comment about the specifications of these systems.

On the ground

Passengers are asked to report three hours before takeoff. All El Al terminals around the world are closely monitored by security agents in either plain clothes or fully armed local police or army personnel, who patrol the premises for explosives, suspicious behavior, and other threats. Inside, passengers and their baggage are checked by a trained team. El Al security procedures also require that all passengers be interviewed individually prior to boarding, allowing El Al staff to identify possible security threats with probing questions, such as their origin, goal and occupation. The likelihood of potential terrorists maintaining their calmness under such inquisitive probing is considered low.[29]

At the check-in counter, ground staff scrutinize the passport and the ticket. They will not accept a ticket without a sticker from the security checkers. Once through passport control, where the person's name is checked through a computer, which utilizes information from both the FBI and Scotland Yard terrorism databases, the person and their hand luggage go through rigorous screening, including hand searches. In addition, all luggage must pass through a decompression chamber; this simulates pressures during flight which may be triggers for explosives.[30] El Al is the only airline in the world that passes all luggage through such a chamber.[31] Even in airports in the United States, El Al security agents conduct all luggage searches personally, though they are often supervised by government or private security firms who otherwise have screening responsibilities.[32]

Fleet

El Al has an all-Boeing fleet which consists of the following aircraft. The airline names some of its aircraft after cities, towns, and regions in Israel.[33]

El Al Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers Routes Notes
Boeing 737-700 2 104 (16J/88Y) Domestic, Europe 4X-EKD (Ashkelon), 4X-EKE (Nazareth)
Boeing 737-800 6 142 (16J/126Y) Domestic, Europe 4X-EKA (Tiberias), 4X-EKB (Eilat), 4X-EKC (Beit She'an), 4X-EKI, 4X-EKO, 4X-EKP
(4X-EKO and 4X-EKP have winglets)
Boeing 747-200 4 (cargo) Freighters Worldwide 4X-AXF, 4X-AXK, 4X-AXL, 4X-AXM
Boeing 747-400 4 408 (8F/52J/348Y) North America, London 4X-ELA (Tel Aviv), 4X-ELB (Haifa), 4X-ELC (Be'er Sheva), 4X-ELD (Jerusalem)
Boeing 757-200 6 178 (16J/162Y) Domestic, Europe 4X-EBS, 4X-EBT, 4X-EBU, 4X-EBV
(Three additional 757-200s are leased to Sun D'Or: 4X-EBO, 4X-EBM, and 4X-EBY)
Boeing 767-200 2 Europe, Far East 4X-EAA, 4X-EAB
Boeing 767-200ER 4 198 (24J/174Y) Europe, Far East 4X-EAC, 4X-EAD, 4X-EAE, 4X-EAF
Boeing 767-300ER 3 234 (24J/210Y) Europe, Far East, North America 4X-EAJ, 4X-EAP, 4X-EAR
Boeing 777-200ER 4 (+2 orders) 283 (6F/40J/237Y) North America, Far East, London 4X-ECA (Galilee), 4X-ECB (Negev), 4X-ECC (HaSharon), 4X-ECD
(4X-ECE will be delivered in July 2007; 4X-ECF will be delivered in August 2007)

In May 2007, it was announced that El Al reached an agreement to lease six or seven aircraft from Boeing between 2011 and 2015 after canceling its option to buy eight Boeing 787 aircraft. It is currently unclear what model these aircraft will be.[34]

King David Lounge

File:BGN LY King David Lounge birdseyeview.jpg
King David Lounge at Ben Gurion International Airport

The King David Lounge is El Al's airport lounge, serving the airline's premium class passengers. There are a total of five King David Lounges worldwide, located at Ben Gurion International Airport, Charles de Gaulle International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, London Heathrow Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport.[35]

The King David Lounges all offer slightly different services to passengers, however they all offer basics such as drinks, snacks, newspapers, (Israeli and International) and magazines. Some lounges also offer free Wi-Fi internet access. The King David Lounge in Ben Gurion International Airport's Terminal 3 includes a special area for first class passengers, telephones, massage facilities, showers, and even a spa.[36]

El Al also has agreements with other companies to provide services at the lounges such as with Arcaffe, which offers coffee and baked goods, Strauss, which offers breakfasts, and Tnuva, which provides health food meals.[37]

Livery

El Al's historic, now superseded livery featured a turquoise/navy blue stripe down the side of aircraft, and a turquoise tailfin with the Israeli flag at the top. El Al's logo was featured above the front run of windows on each side of the plane in the turquoise/navy scheme.[38] The replacement livery featured a ribbon effect blue stripe with a thick silver border on the bottom. It sweeps across onto the side of the aircraft before the wing, disappearing out of sight onto the top before reapearring at the bottom of the tailfin. El Al's logo is also featured in the new livery, although it has since changed slightly.[39]

  • El Al's superceded livery
    El Al's superceded livery
  • El Al's new livery
    El Al's new livery

Logo History

Matmid

Matmid is El Al's frequent flier program. It was launched in 2004 following the merger of El Al's previous frequent flier programs. Matmid has four tiers: Matmid, Matmid Silver, Matmid Gold, and Matmid Platinum. Miles accumulated in the program allow members to redeem tickets, upgrade service class, and obtain discounted car rentals, hotel stays, merchandise, and other products and services through partners. Passengers can also accumulate points on a number of partner airlines.[40]

Partnerships

Matmid points can be collected on most flights operated by:[41]

While some flights operated by the following airlines qualify for points:

  • Aeroméxico flights from Madrid, Miami, New York, and Paris, to Mexico City

Points can also be collected on El Al's codeshare flights.

Codeshare agreements

El Al has the following codeshare partners, as of May 2007.[42]

References

  1. ^ "Divestiture of Flag Carriers". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  2. ^ "El Al, Israel's Largest Airline". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  3. ^ "Information on Airlines El AL Israeli Airways". Retrieved 2007-05-06.
  4. ^ "El Al Cargo". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "History of El Al". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  6. ^ "Unfriendly skies are no match for El Al". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  7. ^ "El Al flies to rescue throughout the world". Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  8. ^ "Bulgaria-Israel Relations". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  9. ^ "Drama of the Desert: The Week of the Hostages". TIME. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  10. ^ "The Day a New Terrorism Was Born". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  11. ^ "Terrorism: The Syrian Connection". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  12. ^ "Aviation World Records". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  13. ^ "Accident description El Al 1862". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  14. ^ "El Al Cargo Profile". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  15. ^ "El Al Airlines posts $15 million profits". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  16. ^ "FBI, Justice: El Al attack was terrorism". CNN. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  17. ^ "Israeli Flight Lands in Toronto". CBC News. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
  18. ^ "Plot to down El Al jet in Geneva foiled". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  19. ^ "El Al, ultra-Orthodox sign deal to end dispute over Shabbat flights". Haaretz. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  20. ^ "El Al opens King David lounge in Paris". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  21. ^ "ActionBase Implementation - A Case Study" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  22. ^ "El Al European Route Map". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  23. ^ "El Al Worldwide Route Map". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  24. ^ "Unfriendly skies are no match for El Al". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  25. ^ "El Al sets security standards". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  26. ^ a b "Model for air travel security may be El Al". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  27. ^ "Flying under the eagle eyes of El Al's famed high security". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2006-08-15.
  28. ^ "Europe objects to El Al's anti-missile shield". YNet News. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
  29. ^ "Israeli-style security might have averted hijackings". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  30. ^ "El Al Decompression Chamber". Simcoe Engineering Group Limited. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  31. ^ "El Al's legendary security measures set industry standards". Israel Insider. 2001-10-03. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  32. ^ "El Al wants to do own bag screening at Newark". USA Today. 2006-05-12. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  33. ^ "El Al Fleet". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  34. ^ "El Al, Boeing close to plane lease deal for 2011-15". Globes. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  35. ^ "El Al King David Lounge". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  36. ^ "El Al King David Lounge Spa". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  37. ^ "El Al signs cooperation agreements with 3 European carriers". Globes. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  38. ^ "El Al Superceded Livery". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  39. ^ "El Al New Livery". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  40. ^ "Matmid Club" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  41. ^ "El Al Partner Airlines". Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  42. ^ "El Al Codeshare Partners". Retrieved 2007-05-07.

See also

External links


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