El Al
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El Al Israel Airlines (אל על, Hebrew: Pun meaning To the sky) is the national airline of Israel. It operates international scheduled passenger flights to Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East and is based at Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv.
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History
The airline was established on 15 November 1948 and started operations in August 1949 with a service from Tel Aviv to Rome and Paris, extended a year later to London. Non-stop Tel Aviv to New York services were introduced on 15 June 1961, when its Boeing 707 set the world record for the longest non-stop commercial flight covering 5,760 miles in 9 hours, 33 minutes. 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. In February 1995 El Al finally left the technical receivership it had been operating under since 1982.
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 exhange. Arkia Israel Airlines parent company, Knafaim-Arkia Holdings, acquired a large stake in mid-2004 and intends to take complete ownership. The current owners are Knafaim-Arkia Holdings (40%), private investors (30%) and the state (30%). It employs 5,417 staff.
Services
El Al operates the following services (at January 2005):
- International scheduled destinations: Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Cairo, Chicago, Dnipropetrovsk, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Kiev, Larnaca, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Marseilles, Miami, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Odessa, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sofia, St Petersburg, Toronto, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich.
El Al is renowned for being the most security conscious airline. Passengers are interrogated by staff, and all their baggage is x-rayed and searched before even being allowed to check in. El Al are one of the only airlines to pass all luggage through a decompression chamber.
Incidents and accidents
On October 4, 1992, El AL Flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200F cargo plane, crashed into the Groeneveen and Klein-Kluitberg flats in Bijlmermeer, a neighbourhood in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Three crew members, one passenger and 43 on the ground were killed. The aircraft was suspected of carrying nerve agent components.
Fleet
El Al Airlines fleet at June 2005:
- 4 Boeing 747-200
- 5 Boeing 747-400
- 2 Boeing 737-700
- 4 Boeing 737-800
- 4 Boeing 777-200
- 6 Boeing 767-200
- 1 Boeing 767-300
- 4 Boeing 757-200
External link
- El Al (http://www.elal.co.il)
- El Al Fleet Detail (http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/El_Al_Israel_Airlines?show=all)
- El Al Passenger Opinions (http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/el_al.htm)
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