El Al recorded record profits in Q4 as other airlines handed El Al a near-monopoly on Israel flights after October 7th. That will be challenged as more airlines return to Tel Aviv.
But El Al is reinvesting to continue growing.
It currently has 24 737s, 6 777s, and 16 Dreamliners, consisting of 4 787-8s, and 12 larger 787-9s.
This summer, the airline will take delivery of a brand new 787-9, the airline’s 17th Dreamliner. It was able to land the new plane quickly as it was intended for Air China, but is being rerouted to El Al. Maybe they got a DansDeal on it. 😀
Unfortunately, that plane features a dated 2-2-2 configuration in business class and only features 30 business class seats instead of the 32 on El Al’s Dreamliners. There is no premium economy section, instead there are 34 economy seats with extra legroom in a 3-3-3 configuration and 229 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. That’s a total of 293 seats versus the 282 seats on El Al’s other 787-9s.
El Al hasn’t made any decisions about which routes the Air China configured 787 will fly, or whether it will be reconfigured, but I’d have to imagine the airline will want to do that so that they have one common seat configuration for the 787-9s, which would allow it to be used and swapped in on any route. But you may want to watch your seat maps to see if it will be operated with a 2-2-2 business class instead of 1-2-1.
El Al’s 18th Dreamliner is expected in 2025 and the 19th Dreamliner in 2026, both of which will be 787-9s and will have the airline’s normal Dreamliner seating.
Today, the airline announced it ordered 3 more 787-9s, which it expects to receive in 2029 and 2030, which will increase the Dreamliner fleet to 22. The 3 planes will cost between $650-$750 million.
The airline also announced that it now has options to purchase 6 more 787-9s, for a potential fleet of 28 Dreamliners.
The airline also expects to order up to 30 narrowbody aircraft in the coming months and is negotiating with Airbus and Boeing for that order.
What is your preferred airline for flying to Israel?
HT: tavster and chff
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23 Comments On "After Reporting Record Profits, El Al Locks In More Dreamliners"
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Who would have thunk, record profits after price gouging for half a year.
with all the recent Boeing incidents Id say for the narrow-body’s at least they would be better with airbus. FAA could create a real backlog with recertifications etc.
LY buys Boeings for political reasons, not commercial. Though I assume that there would be some significant costs in splitting as it’s not a very big fleet.
United. That way I can get useful status for domestic flights.
Turns out that nearly all your competition avoiding your primary airport for months is pretty good for business.
On another note, it’s nice to see that the new ownership of El Al is reinvesting to grow the fleet instead of stripping the corporate assets to quickly recoup his costs from the acquisition. So many corporate mergers and buyouts lead to an absolute gutting of the company and it would have seemed a shame if that had happened to El Al
I thought ElAl was under an agreement to buy only from Boeing, not Airbus as part of its aid that it gets from the US…?
No such agreement, though it is good politics and there are cost savings for fleet commonality.
Even if it’s an off the record kind of deal, the US govt is pissed at Boeing now anyway.
That doesn’t mean they want Boeing to fail.
I don’t know why but I usually manage to fall asleep much easier on airbus economy than on premium economy el al
The Air China plane will almost certainly be committed to the leisure routes, like Thailand
Im expecting to see it a lot in CDG and BKK
It’s unfortunate that they stick to Boeing.
With record profit$, why did ElAl just now substantially raise their baggage fees for duffles bringing donated goods to Israel during wartime?! Especially since travel options to Israel have been limited, passengers and donations don’t have much of a choice. Seems wrong to me and many others. What do you think, is it justifiable or simply greed?
they are the only airline flighting and although they raised prices they could have raised them more and the market would have absorbed the price increase there flights are totally booked
service has significantly improved since the take over
I think the term you are looking for is price gouging
Any particular reason why they buy Boeing? Happy to prefer the Airbus(obviously depends how they configure them) and they certainly appear safer these days
im wondering why no 787-1000 like united ?
it happens to be air canada does best job going t oisreal
cant stand the day flight ex-tlv
though i flew once 1 am flight during covid
hopefully if it will come back
gotta love preclearance
I find it interesting that ELAL buys only Boeing for political reasons
while every major American Airlines has Airbus in their fleets (gotta be frumer then the pope)
Anyway 5 of the 6 b777-200 (I think the actual number is 4 but ill go with six) that ELAL has are in storage for the past 4-6 years, Don’t understand why they don’t liquidate and invest in a 777x fleet for high volume routes.
I am not sure there is substantial liquidation value in older 777 models.
I imagine those in the decision process have used BA aircraft so long they might be aware of issues we armchair executives are not aware of. At this point, commonality and allegiance to BA might bring better cost numbers. Larger airlines might get similar prices even splitting orders because their orders can be much latger.
I assume with travel growth a time might come when flying the old 777 models might pay. Now they are better off using their most efficient aircraft.
77X is a fairy tale plane ordered constantly by airlines than want to create a lot of hype with their orders but dont plan on flying them anywhere in the near future