El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) is saying goodbye today to a Boeing 747-400 airliner (Jumbo Jet) that it has used for the past 25 years. This plane, once called the Queen of the Skies, today made its final flight from New York to Tel Aviv. El Al's fleet contains three more planes of this model, all of which will also be removed from service by the end of the year, putting an end to the airline's use of 747-400s.
The erstwhile Queen of the Skies will be disassembled, its engines sold to another airline, and its chassis used for spare parts.
The phasing out of the 747-400s is timed to keep pace with procurement of Dreamliners. 10 of the 16 Dreamliners ordered by El Al are already flying in routes to various destinations, and the other six are scheduled to join El Al's fleet by 2020. El Al's fleet currently numbers 42 planes.
During its years of service since 1994, the plane named Haifa took off and landed 11,000 times, accumulating 90,000 flight hours and covering a distance equivalent to 16,000 circumnavigations of the earth. The plane, which had 403 seats, operated mainly on routes between Tel Aviv and New York, Bangkok, London, Paris, and Barcelona.
El Al recently discontinued use of its ELF 747-400 cargo plane, which made its last flight from Liege in Belgium to Tel Aviv. El Al used the plane for nine years, during which it flew 275,000 tons.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 10, 2019
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