Will El Al be a coronavirus casualty? The possible shutdown of Israel’s national airline impacts more than the economic standing of the company and the livelihoods of its employees. After all, El Al is more than simply one of many international airlines left financially devastated by COVID-19 travel restrictions.
It’s a national icon of the Jewish state.
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El Al Before Coronavirus
The establishment of El Al in 1948 was not simply a means for people to travel to and from Israel. The very existence of an airline flying around the world with the Israeli flag on its tail made a statement that Israel exists and that Israel is strong. The name “El Al,” which literally means “to upwards,” comes from the Book of Hosea (11:7):
And my people are in suspense about returning to me; and though they call them upwards (El-al) – none at all will lift himself up.
Indeed, countless Jews and their families have made aliyah (immigrated) on El Al flights.
Related reading: What Is Israel’s Law of Return?
El Al’s very first flight in September 1948 flew President Haim Weizmann back to Israel after a diplomatic visit to Geneva. In 1949, El Al planes participated in Operation Magic Carpet which brought 49,000 Jews to live in Israel. El Al’s participation in the “ingathering of the exiles” continued in the early 1950’s, bringing more than 160,000 Jews to live in Israel including 130,000 from Iraq in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.
In May 1960, El Al played a crucial role in capturing and transferring Adolph Eichmann from Argentina to Israel where we was tried and convicted for crimes against the Jewish people. El Al was also critical to the defense of Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, helping airlift military equipment. With other airlines not flying in or out of the Jewish state, El Al was the only connection between Israel and the world.
El Al flights have also served as symbols of peace. Following the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, El Al began a route between Tel Aviv and Cairo in April 1980, demonstrating the tangible reality of the peace accords. When the Iron Curtain fell and Jews from the former Soviet Union were allowed to move to Israel, El Al made its maiden flight from Moscow as early as January 1990 and flew tens of thousands of Jews to Israel in the years that followed.
El Al similarly played a crucial role in Operation Solomon in 1991. Israel mobilized the airline’s Boeing 747s along with the Air Force’s C-130 cargo planes to airlift 14,500 Ethiopian Jews in 36 hours.
The symbol of peace continued in June 1996 with the first El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Amman after Israel signed a peace agreement with Jordan.
Reputation for Security
The airline is known to be one of the world’s most secure airlines. Every plane is equipped with a missile defense system to protect it from surface to air missiles, and every flight carries an armed air marshal.
Despite repeated attempts, only one El Al flight has ever been hijacked. That was on July 23, 1968 when terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took control of flight 426 from Rome to Tel Aviv and diverted it to Algiers. No lives were lost, but the 51 passengers and 10 crew members were held for 39 days before being released in exchange for 16 Palestinian prisoners.
In 1970, El Al’s Captain Uri Bar Lev became the only pilot to foil a mid-air hijacking. Flight 707 en route from Amsterdam to New York had just reached cruising altitude when a pair of Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists pulled out weapons and threatened to blow up the plane if Bar Lev didn’t open the cockpit door. Rather than comply, he put the plane in a negative-G dive, which threw the terrorists off their feet, allowing plain-clothed air marshals to overpower them. Some 30 years later, following the terror attacks of 9/11, the Wall St. Journal tracked down Bar Lev to learn more about preventing skyjackings.
El Al has broken numerous records and won many prizes, making it a source of Israeli pride. In 1988, its 17,000-mile flight from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv which took 13 hours and 41 minutes broke the world record for longest continuous flight. During Operation Solomon in 1991, the airline broke another record when it carried 1,087 Ethiopian Jews in one Boeing 747 flight.
As the national airline of the Jewish state, El Al only offers kosher meals and the airline does not fly passengers on the Jewish Sabbath and Holidays.
In 72 years, El Al has grown to over 40 aircrafts including many new “Dreamliner” airplanes, and flies to close to 40 direct destination around the world.
Originally government-owned, El Al was privatized in 2005.
El Al responded to the coronavirus crisis by firing 2,000 employees – approximately 33 percent of its workforce. Senior executives are taking salary cuts and all remaining employees agreed to give up the standard free flights for the next five years.
The airline is taking out a $400 million loan just to stay afloat, and the government offered an 80% loan guarantee. However, as a condition, the government is demanding significant reforms, accusing El Al of financial mismanagement and bloated salaries. CEO Gonen Usishkin in turn accused Treasury officials of intentionally trying to break up the airline.
Despite the airline’s privatization, El Al remains a national icon for Israel and, as a result, the government will most likely take unusual steps to try to save it.
Featured image: CC0 BY Pixabay, CC0 Unsplash; hands CC0 Pixabay; Kurdish Jews via Wikimedia Commons; airliner CC BY-SA Dmitry Terekhov; tail via YouTube/El Al;
