El Al, Israel’s national airline, announced today that it will invest over $170 million during the next four years to expand its services, add more flights and larger aircraft.
According to the company’s directors, El Al will place in service its first two Boeing 747 Jumbo-jets in June and November, 1971, aircraft with a capacity of 400 passengers. A new Boeing 707 will go into service for El Al next January.
The airline, which presently has flights to Europe, South Africa and the United States, will begin negotiating at the end of this month for a new line to Canada. A decision in principle has also been taken to establish twice weekly flights between Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, via Rome, to begin next winter.
The company’s directors claimed that El Al’s passenger traffic has not suffered as a result of Arab terrorist attacks on its planes in Zurich and Athens and continuous terrorist threats. They said that, on the contrary, many passengers had transferred to El Al from other carriers during the past summer.
The expansion of Israel’s airline is in sharp contrast with the decline of Israel-flag passenger shipping. Last month the Zim Lines sold the S.S. Theodor Herzl, one of Israel’s four remaining passenger liners. Five have since been sold and one is on long term charter to a foreign company.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
