Another airline retires the 747: El Al announces final flight in November
El Al Israel Airlines is gearing up to retire the last of its Boeing 747s. In the airline's schedule update, the flag carrier of Israel detailed plans to retire the last of its 747s in early November.
As reported by RoutesOnline, the final El Al 747 is scheduled to operate between Rome (FCO) and Tel Aviv (TLV). The outbound TLV-FCO leg will depart on Nov. 1, before returning to TLV — and retiring — on Nov. 3.
The flights, which will be charter flights, will operate on the following schedule:
- LY1744 Tel Aviv (TLV) 8:05 a.m. Departure ⇒ Rome (FCO) 10:30 a.m. Arrival — Nov. 1
- LY1747 Rome (FCO) 10:00 a.m. Departure ⇒ Tel Aviv (TLV) 3:45 p.m. Arrival — Nov. 3
Neither of the aircraft's final flights are available to book on El Al's website. Currently, El Al has only two 747s operating in its fleet, registered as 4X-ELA and 4X-ELC, which are 25 years and 24 years old, respectively, according to PlaneSpotters.net. 4X-ELC will be the final 747 flying with El Al.
El Al's four-engine 747s will be replaced by the newer and more fuel-efficient twin-engine Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The carrier took delivery of its first Dreamliner in August 2017, and since then, it's taken delivery of an additional 11 of the aircraft, which feature a three-class configuration: business, premium and economy.
The hard products on the Dreamliner represent a significant improvement over the aged 747s. TPG himself flew El Al's first class product on the 747 earlier this year and found the vintage plane experience a pro, but the otherwise outdated experience (and bad food) to be a con. You can watch his full review below.
