EL AL Matmid - Elal MD11

I'm suprised, but according to Airfleets (http://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-md11-48746.htm) Elal was operating a MDII from Jul 1998-Jan 1999, I also a found a picture of the aircraft in Elal colours in Zurich (http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=110680) and LAX (http://www.airliners.net/photo/El-Al-Israel/McDonnell-Douglas-MD-11-ER/0220075/&sid=d72961b11c353a85cca42b9d81f87eed) (In those days they seemed to paint aircaft in Elal colours even if the aircraft was only operating for 6 months, while nowdays things seem very different).

Anybody have any info on this aircraft, and why they were operating this plane for these months? The aircraft seemed to stay registered in the US (you can see the US registration in the picture).

Anybody actually flew on this aircraft?

I flew an LY flight on that plane.
It was a wet lease from World Airways.
The pilots were non El Al but I think the flight attendants were.
It was a long time ago.
El Al occasionally did things like this during high-demand seasons, though they haven't recently.

Very interesting

In those days they seemed to paint aircaft in Elal colours even if the aircraft was only operating for 6 months, while nowdays things seem very different

Right. Nowadays, the planes are owned by LY and flown many years by them, and STILL don't get the right livery ;)

in the begining of the 2000's elal operated a MD for one summer only on the TLV-NYC route. The FA's were elal's and the pilots not.

Very interesting



Right. Nowadays, the planes are owned by LY and flown many years by them, and STILL don't get the right livery ;)

although back than they also had this weird idea of only painting part of the livery, this aircraf's tail only has the top of the livery, the blue tail is missing

although back than they also had this weird idea of only painting part of the livery, this aircraf's tail only has the top of the livery, the blue tail is missing

Is that because that was how they painted, or because this is an MD-11, much smaller than, say, a 747

Is that because that was how they painted, or because this is an MD-11, much smaller than, say, a 747

In those days Elal still had their old livery, meaning the aircraft only had the top part of the tail painted, and the blue parts of the tail and body missing.

IIRC it was a wet lease from US based World Airways

Oops just realized someone already mentioned this mods please remove post

in the begining of the 2000's elal operated a MD for one summer only on the TLV-NYC route. The FA's were elal's and the pilots not.


Which was not fair.... A lot of people are selecting their airline according to how safe they rate it... So they chose to fly El Al and were actually flying another airline without being informed.

Regarding the livery, it is understandable that a plane would not be painted in the full El Al livery for just a few weeks/months.... Btw, today number of leased airplanes is much higher in the El Al fleet than it was in the 1990s.