The Israeli airline El Al saw its sixth Boeing 787 Dreamliner arrive at its home base of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on the 14th, resplendent in a retro livery.
The twinjet, registration 4X-EDF arrived at around 08:50 local time on 14th August, following a flight from Boeing in Seattle. The paint job on the 'retrojet' dates from the sixties when it appeared on the airlines Boeing 707's and has been applied to this, the latest aircraft to join the El Al fleet to help commemorate the carrier’s 70th anniversary.
The national airline of Israel is having a hard time, at least financially, the company again reported a loss in the second quarter, despite an increase in revenue. El Al posted a loss of $18.2 million in the quarter, compared with a profit of $16 million a year earlier. Its revenue rose by a percentage point to $547 million, however, operating expenses rose by 10.9 percent, which the airline blames on the increasing cost of fuel. The carriers low factor also fell slightly, from 84.3 last year to 83.5 percent this year, for this the management blames on increased competition in the region.
El Al recently had to take out a massive $125 million loan with an undisclosed financial provider in order to pay for the Dreamliner aircraft. The loan is understood to be guaranteed by UK Export Finance and the troubled is already seeking another loan or further financing for later this year to further facilitate the increased pace which the airline is reorganizing its fleet.
