Israel’s El Al restores Boeing 777s to service amid rebound in travel demand

An El Al airways airplane is seen after its touchdown at Good airport, France, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

JERUSALEM, July 24 (Reuters) – Israeli airline El Al (ELAL.TA) stated on Sunday it was returning Boeing (BA.N) 777-200ER plane to its fleet to fulfill excessive journey demand through the summer time.

Israel’s flag service sidelined six 777s on the outset of the COVID-19 disaster when it halted all flights between March and September 2020 amid plunging demand. Its growing old 747s had already been retired and changed by 15 new Dreamliner 787 plane on lengthy haul routes to North America and Asia.

The airline has six 777 planes with a mean age of almost twenty years and stated it might return a few of them to service for its routes to Bangkok, Phuket, Athens and Dubai — locations it stated are in demand.

“The return of the planes will make it potential to broaden the flight schedule within the peak season and even permit extra locations,” El Al stated.

It added that the plane, a few of which had been used on cargo routes, have handed all assessments and changes wanted to return to the skies.

In line with Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport knowledge, the variety of passengers on El Al rose 151% in June over June 2021. Over the primary half of 2022, 1.6 million passengers flew El Al, up from 400,000 a 12 months earlier.

Reporting by Steven Scheer; Enhancing by Susan Fenton

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