The Inside Story Of How El Al Decided To Remain An All-Boeing Carrier With Its Largest Ever Aircraft Order

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El Al currently has 24 737NGs (consisting of 16 Boeing 737-800s and 8 Boeing 737-900ERs) 6 Boeing 777-200ERs (only some of these are currently operational), and 16 Dreamliners (consisting of 4 Boeing 787-8s, and 12 Boeing 787-9s).

In March, the Israeli flag carrier announced that it would acquire up to 12 more 787-9s. One was built for Air China and will arrive this summer, with a dated 2-2-2 business class configuration and no premium economy seating. Another 787-9 built for El Al is expected in 2025 and another in 2026 with the regular configuration. 3 more will arrive between 2029-2030. And the airline has options to buy 6 more, for a potential fleet of 28 Dreamliners.

For the past 14 months, the airline has been negotiating with Airbus and Boeing to replace its aging 737NG fleet with the A321neo or 737MAX.

And yes, they were real negotiations. At times, it seemed like Airbus was going to win the battle, but Boeing came out swinging and heavily discounted their planes to keep El Al as one of the few airlines in the world with an all-Boeing fleet.

Yesterday, El Al’s board decided to hammer out the final details exclusively with Boeing. The airline expects to order approximately 30 737MAX aircraft, its largest ever aircraft order.

They would arrive starting in 2027 and running through about 2032. The airline’s older 737-800s would be replaced first, with the 737-900s being retired towards the final years of the order fulfillment.

The current thinking is that the majority of those will skew towards the larger MAX9 and MAX10 variants, but that will be finalized when the order is placed in the next few months. Boeing pushed the MAX10 option hard, and El Al is excited to take delivery of the largest 737MAX variant and the majority of the order is likely to be for that MAX10.

The airline’s 737-800 currently seats 166 in a 2-class configuration and the 737-900 currently seats 175. Expect the airline to gain about 25-30 seats per plane if they swap those out for the MAX9 and MAX10 respectively. With Ben Gurion becoming more crowded, larger plane capacity will help with congestion and gate/slot limitations.

Of course, the MAX10 is not yet certified and the FAA has declined to provide a timetable for the certification of that plane. El Al isn’t particularly concerned about that plane failing to materialize due to American, Delta, and United all having large orders for the variant. Additionally, there would be penalties for Boeing if they can’t deliver the MAX10s, along with majorly discounted options if they have to downgauge the variant order.

Obviously, Airbus would have loved to win over an all-Boeing carrier. However, due to their huge order backlog, they were not able to deliver any planes until 2029.

Would it have been politically tenable to order Airbus, despite Israel’s deep ties with the US? The airline didn’t receive pressure from the Israeli or US government to order Boeing. There were also options to outfit the Airbus order with US-manufactured engines, with the majority of the plane’s parts coming from the US.

But in the end, despite intense negotiations, Airbus was unwilling to match the steep discounting that Boeing was willing to offer to keep El Al an all-Boeing airline. Of course, the timing worked out in El Al’s favor as well. Unsurprisingly thanks to the Alaska Air 737 MAX9 incident, 2024 has been a record-low year for 737MAX sales. Boeing needs to keep taking 737 MAX orders and will do what it takes to make those sales.

Aside from the price, for El Al, there are advantages to remaining all-Boeing. Fleet commonality means there are lower overall costs and the airline won’t incur transition costs to train pilots and technicians for Airbus.

Of course, El Al has stayed on top of Boeing’s safety woes, but they are confident that the manufacturer and the FAA will correct all safety issues, ensuring that the 737MAX fleet is safe to fly.

El Al’s current 737 fleet does have a Sky Shield anti-missile defense system, though the 787 fleet doesn’t due to Boeing’s high asking price for that option. This order will include the option to have that system in place.

The estimated cost of the order, including substitute engines and spare parts, is between 2 and 2.5 billion dollars, subject to several various adjustments. Airbus and Boeing don’t disclose exact sale prices and don’t allow airlines to break down the exact plane cost after credits, so that’s just a ballpark figure.

With a range of about 3,600 miles, the plane can cover the Middle East, Europe, India, and Northern Africa, though it won’t have the legs to make it to the US, Far East, Thailand, or Southern Africa.

It’s possible that a 737MAX sub-fleet could be installed with lie-flat business class seats for premium markets, though that decision will be made in the coming months as well.

Is El Al concerned about placing a big MAX order, only for Boeing to finally retire the 737 and create a new narrowbody aircraft from scratch?

Not in particular. After all, even if the project received a green light today, it would take a decade in the best-case scenario. More likely, it would take 2 decades to be drawn up, designed, built, certified, and brought to market. With El Al’s 737 fleet due for a refresh, it will have no regrets about locking in the MAX order now.

What do you think of the decision to stick with the Boeing 737MAX over the Airbus A321neo?