Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

El Al Buys 787s To Lure New Customers For Flights To Israel

BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (Reuters) – El Al Israel Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on Wednesday in a $1.25 billion investment aimed at renewing its long-range fleet, halting a drop in its market share and winning back business customers.

In all, Israel’s flag carrier will receive 16 787-8 and 787-9 planes — both bought and leased — by 2020. It expects one more 787 by year-end, a total of seven by the end of 2018 and 14 by the end of 2019.

They will initially fly from Tel Aviv to Newark starting on Oct. 17 and then Hong Kong, London and New York’s JFK airport.

El Al was once the go-to airline for most Israelis thanks to the kind of stringent security that equips planes with missile defense systems.

But it has frustrated customers — particularly business travelers — over the past decade with an aging fleet that compares poorly with competitors offering newer jets fitted with the latest in hi-tech entertainment and comfort.

Last week, it reported a 53 percent drop in second-quarter net profit due to higher salary and jet fuel costs. Its market share at Ben Gurion Airport fell to 29.5 percent from 34.2 percent a year ago.

“I am sure (because of) this aircraft, most of our passengers will be back, especially the business segment,” El Al CEO David Maimon told Reuters on Wednesday.

The new aircraft are expected to cut fuel costs by at least 20 percent.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.