Airline Profile: El Al

The Facts:

Analysis:

5 Things You Need To Know About El Al

• North American Destinations: El Al flies to a total of 9 North American destinations, which is quite a lot, although isn’t as surprising given the United States’ good relations with Israel. In the New York area alone, El Al flies to two airports: Newark: (up to 2x daily, 787s & 777s) and New York JFK (747s, 787s, & 777s), which makes for sometimes up to 5x daily service to the New York area, which is quite impressive. El Al also flies to Los Angeles (5x weekly, 787s), San Francisco (3x weekly, 777s), Miami (3x weekly, 787s), Boston (3x weekly, 777s), and Toronto (3x weekly, 787). El Al also recently introduced service from Tel Aviv to both Orlando (1x weekly, 777s) and Las Vegas (1x weekly, 787s). I find it odd that El Al introduced these two routes only 1x weekly, as I really can’t imagine that they are making them a lot of money and I don’t really get why they started flying there (I know, they are big tourism cities, but still). The answer to that might be in the Ministry of Tourism of Israel which provides big grants to airlines serving a new destination from Israel…
• Fleet: El Al’s fleet consists of the Boeing 737 (-800 and -900), 747-400, 777-200, and the 787-9. Their 737s are operated in a two-class configuration (economy and first-class) and fly solely from Tel Aviv to multiple destinations within Europe and Western Asia. Their 777s and 747s feature their old onboard cabin products (I’ll dive deeper into this later) and fly to both long-haul destinations around the world and also some within Europe. Specifically, their 777s regularly fly to Newark, New York JFK, Boston, Orlando, Beijing, Paris CDG, Amsterdam, London Luton, and Johannesburg. Their 747s regularly operate to Paris CDG, Barcelona, Bangkok, and New York JFK. El Al’s 787s are their only aircraft now to feature their new onboard products, and regularly fly to Toronto, Larnaca, Paris, Hong Kong, Mumbai, London Heathrow, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Newark, New York JFK, Miami, and will serve Chicago, when service there resumes in 2020.
• Don’t Fly On Saturdays: As you might very well imagine, El Al is highly observant of Judaism. Because of that, they don’t fly on the Sabbath, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. That means that their flight schedules are highly organized around this one principle and that they do not serve any destinations daily. There even was a situation a few months ago where a delayed El Al flight flew from New York JFK to Tel Aviv but had to divert because of this. The story goes that observing passengers threatened crew members to storm the cockpit, and later the flight diverted to Athens because the flight would fly into the Sabbath, although apparently the captain also told passengers that they would be returning back to the gate, then actually took off.
• New Premium Cabins: El Al recently (in 2017) introduced new onboard cabin products. Those replaced their old cabin products which it featured on their older 777s, 747s, and on their now retired 767s. The 787s have flatbed seats in business with all aisle access in business class and also have a new premium economy product, which was large upgrades from their old cabins which had angle flat seats in business class and flatbed first-class seats without all aisle access. El Al still has their old cabin products onboard their 777s and 747s. That does mean that, ironically, their 787 business class seats are much better than their first-class seats on their 777s and 747s, which don’t have all aisle access. El Al plans to retire their 747s soon and has no solid plans to retrofit their 777s with their new onboard cabin products – they also have no plans to introduce a replacement first class, so once they retire their 777s and 747s, El Al’s first class will become obsolete.
• Lounges: El Al operates its own lounges, which it markets as the King David Lounges. It operates at locations at Tel Aviv Airport, New York JFK Airport, Paris CDG Airport, and London Heathrow Airport. Its flagship lounge, at Tel Aviv Airport, which has showers, standard airport lounge type seating, complimentary food and drink, and even a spa, which is rare for business class lounges. Kind David Lounges are available to business class passengers, first class passengers, and Platinum and Gold members of El Al’s Matmid Club, and King David Club members.

Travel Classes

Economy Class

Economy class on El Al is in a 3-3 configuration on all Boeing 737s, a 3-3-3 configuration on all and 787s, and is in a 3-4-3 configuration on all 747s and 777s. Personal on-demand entertainment is available on all Boeing 787s, while all 777s and 747s feature a more rudimentary seat back entertainment system with a more limited selection of looped movies. Some Boeing 737-800s and 737-900s feature streaming personal device entertainment, although some 737s do not. Additionally, all Boeing 787s and some Boeing 737s feature in-flight WiFi, where both basic (non-streaming) and social (streaming) options are available. Commendably, El Al does offer free texting on all aircraft which have WiFi. Also, El Al offers free meals and drinks on all of its flights.

Passengers are able to check one 23kg (50lbs) bag on each flight when you book a Classic or Flexi fare, although it costs money when you book a Lite fare. Additionally, El Al offers an extra legroom section on some of its aircraft, which it labels as Seat PLUS. El Al Seat PLUS is only available on Boeing 777s and 747s, is available for an extra charge, and has 2-4 inches more legroom and has more recline than economy class has. El Al does not have Seat PLUS on their 787s as it was replaced with their full premium economy product.

Premium Class

Premium class is only available on El Al’s 787s (on their current 787-9s and will be available on their 787-8s, once they take delivery of them), and is their full premium economy product. It features seats which are pretty standard for premium economy–they are in a 2-3-2 configuration, have 38 inches of legroom, have footrests, and headrests (but no leg rests), large in-flight entertainment screens, power outlets, and get meals better than those in economy class. The seats are similar to (if not identical to) the premium economy products on American Airlines and United Airlines. Additionally, passengers traveling in premium class do not get lounge access (like they do on some airlines) but do get a larger baggage allowance than in economy class, with two 23kg (50lbs) bags included.

Business Class

Business class is available on all flights except on El Al’s flights to Larnaca, Prague, and Budapest, which are operated with 737s in a one-class service. Business-class passengers receive meals better than those than in economy class and have access to lounges at most airports served. Amenity kits are available on most flights, and bedding (which includes pillows and blankets) are available on all flights. In terms of entertainment, passengers have full personal on-demand entertainment on all Boeing 777s, 747s, and 787s, although receive tablets for entertainment on 737s. In addition, power outlets are available on all 777s, 747s, and 787s. Passengers are allowed to check two 32kg (70lbs) bags for each flight. El Al operates three different types of business class seats, which are listed below.

• Recliner: On all 737s which have business class, recliner seats with leg rests, headrests, and footrests are available in a 2-2 configuration. These seats are similar to business class that is is available on short-haul flights within the US on American, United, Delta, and Alaska Airlines. These seats do not have any built-in in-flight entertainment or power outlets, although passengers do receive complimentary tablets loaded with free films, the flight map, and TV shows.
• Angle Flat: On all of El Al’s 777s and 747s, slightly angle-flat seats are available. The seats aren’t that angled, and are mostly flat, besides the upper section of the seat, which is slightly angled. These seats are in a 2-2-2 configuration on 747s and 777s, although they are in a 2-2 configuration on the top deck of the 747. Additionally, built-in old-style in-flight entertainment screens are built into the seats. El Al operates aircraft with these angle flat seats on many of their long-haul routes such as to New York, Boston, and Johannesburg. In a day where it’s only acceptable to have fully flat seats with all aisle access in business class, it is unacceptable to have angle flat seats on many long-haul routes.

• Staggered: All of El Al’s Boeing 787s feature staggered seats in a 1-2-1 configuration which use the Recaro CL6710 seats. These seats are extremely similar to the seats in United Polaris and are also used on TAP Portugal’s and Azul’s Airbus A330neos along with China Southern’s A350s. The seats are by far the best business class seats that El Al uses, and are used on most of their flights to North America. They have a large amount of privacy, all aisle access, modern in-flight entertainment screens, and have a fair amount of storage.

First Class

First-class is available on all of El Al’s Boeing 777-200s and 747-400s. It is in a 2-2 configuration on their 747s and is in a 2-2-2 configuration on their 777s and has fully flat seats. To have a first-class product that doesn’t have all aisle access today is just embarrassing, and quite obviously, El Al’s 787 business class seats are much better than their first-class seats. The seats have little privacy (not even dividers), almost no storage, and frankly aren’t even that better than their business class seats on their 777s and 747s, which I also criticized for not being up to par as a business class product. I would definitely prefer to travel on El Al’s 787 business class rather than on their first-class product.

With the introduction of their new 787 business class, they did not introduce a new first-class product. It is more than likely that El Al will phase out their first-class entirely within the next couple of years, due to a lack of aircraft in their long-term fleet plan that has it. Now, despite all of my criticism of their seats, El Al does feature a full first-class product in terms of its hard product, with a better soft product than in business class (including PJs) and better in-flight service and meals, along with a dedicated section of their Tel Aviv lounge. First-class passengers also get a larger baggage allowance, of three 32kg (70lbs) bags.

Have ever flown on El Al? Share about your experience below in the comments section!