El Al ends B747 Kennedy operation

After 48 years, El Al has withdrawn the Boeing B747 from the New York flight. Once via Heathrow with the early Dash-200 series, the flight has been flown non-stop since 1994 by Boeing B747-400s taking around 10hr 30min.

Before the long-distance aircraft’s introduction, passengers could take US flights from London under what is known as “fifth freedom” rights. Other carriers benefiting from those rules included Air India, Iran Air and Kuwait Airways, all of which served Kennedy from Heathrow.

El Al's Boeing B747-400 fleet is to be terminated officially at the end of October 2019 when the last two will be retired and replaced by new B787 Dreamliners.

Retiring the aircraft from service is part of El Al’s strategy to phase out veteran aircraft and replace them with new, advanced models. El Al this week will add a 12th Dreamliner, named Jerusalem of Gold, to its fleet.

Now privately-owned, El Al Israel Airlines was established in 1948, and currently flies to 36 destinations. The airline began renewing its all-Boeing fleet in September 2017 with the arrival of the first of 16 Rolls-Royce Trent-powered 787s.

El Al carried more than 5.6m passengers in 2018. Its early aircraft included the Lockheed Constellation and the Bristol Britannia, known as  “the Whispering Giant”.

www.elal.com

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