EL AL Israel Airlines operated its first regularly scheduled flight on 31 July 1949 (Tel Aviv to Paris, via Rome). By 1951 EL AL flew passengers on regularly scheduled flights between Tel Aviv and 11 cities, six in Europe (Athens, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Zurich) plus Istanbul, Nicosia, Nairobi, Johannesburg and New York. Additional passenger destinations were not added until 1956. Meanwhile, the airline opened local offices in each location it served plus in other important cities.
In EL AL’s early years each of its offices issued their own timetables, typically in the local language. Until late 1954 the cover design of the timetables often varied from office to office, and the inside design continued to vary considerably until more uniformity was introduced in 1963. Also note that it was not unusual to make schedule changes during the effective period of a particular timetable before the next timetable was printed.
All timetables shown are in the author’s collection unless otherwise noted.
This is EL AL’s earliest timetable printed for public distribution that is known to the author. Zurich office issue effective 26 January 1950, in German, showing an EL AL Douglas DC-4 and flights from Zurich to Tel Aviv, front side above and back side at right. (EL AL Archive)
The early EL AL timetables feature the airline’s initial ‘flying star’ logo, designed by artist Franz Krausz — a six-pointed star associated with the State of Israel and the Jewish people and called a ‘Magen David’ in Hebrew, meaning Shield of David, ancient Israel’s famous king. The added wings proclaim the airline’s star in the sky.
EL AL’S first systemwide timetable known to the author that was printed for public distribution. Tel Aviv office issue, in Hebrew and English, front cover and back cover listing offices, 15 December 1950. (EL AL Archive)Inside pages of 15 December 1950 timetable showing systemwide flights. At that time EL AL utilized the flight code ‘EA’, but it soon had to change it because of confusion with Eastern Air Lines. By October 1951 EL AL changed its flight code to ‘LY’, the initials being taken from LYdda Airport, the original name of today’s Tel Aviv Ben-Gurion Airport.
In April 1951 EL AL introduced Lockheed Constellations to its fleet and started regularly scheduled service between Tel Aviv and New York, as reflected in the following timetable.
Timetable cover and inside pages displaying flights, issued by EL AL’s New York office, 29 April 1951
EL AL timetable cover and inside pages showing route map and cities served, July 1951, New York office issue. (Ex Sandra Lewis Brown collection)
Cover of 1 May 1952 timetable issued by EL AL’s New York office featuring the introduction of all-Tourist class Constellation service. Starting October 1951 EL AL flights used the ‘LY’ code instead of ‘EA’.
Cover of 15 June 1952 timetable issued by EL AL’s Paris office in French. (EL AL Archive)
Cover of 26 October 1953 timetable, issued by the New York office. Note that the ‘A’ in EL AL has changed from a pointed top to a rounded one.
Cover of 19 April 1953 timetable, Johannesburg office Issue.
Inside flight schedule in 19 April 1953 timetable, Johannesburg office issue. Note the top heading in Afrikaans, a West Germanic language introduced by Dutch settlers in South Africa.
EL AL Summer 1954 timetable (20 June – 30 October 1954) issued by its Amsterdam office in the Dutch language.In November 1954 EL AL introduced for the first time a standard form of timetable cover for use by all its offices. The two sides of the cover, when opened, form a series of colored circles, like a target with the world in the center and an outer ring listing EL AL’s destinations. The style of the inside pages varied depending on the office and the particular issue date. Each timetable issue utilized different colors. This style of timetable cover continued in use until the issue effective 1 June – 1 November 1958.
Reverse side of the two-sided multi-colored ‘target’ cover. In Winter 1957/58, when EL AL introduced turboprop Bristol Britannia aircraft to its fleet, the Constellation aircraft in this image and on the front cover was replaced by a Britannia aircraft.
In early 1956 EL AL added Amsterdam and Brussels as its first new regularly scheduled destinations since 1951. The new destinations are shown in this extract from the London office table effective 3 June – 13 October 1956. Note also that Fort Lamy (the former name of N’Djamena, the capital of Chad) and Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo) replace Nairobi in this schedule as stops en route to Johannesburg. This was due to dangers posed by Egypt at the time to shipping and aviation along the Red Sea route to Nairobi.On 22 December 1957 EL AL introduced its new Bristol Britannia aircraft on scheduled service, as highlighted on this New York office Winter 1957/58 timetable (the 1 December 1957 Britannia start date on this timetable was premature by three weeks). This timetable also shows EL AL’s first service to West Germany (Cologne/Bonn and Munich), although the official start date of regularly scheduled service to those destinations started in February and March 1958 respectively.At times individual offices would continue to issue special timetables. This example from the New York office, May 1958, highlights expanded service on the New York – Tel Aviv route by EL AL’s turboprop Britannia aircraft.
From 1958 to 1962 EL AL issued timetables with a cover simulating the aluminum skin of an aircraft with rivets, along with a more modern font for the ‘EL AL’ name
At the same time, during 1960 to mid-1963 the New York office issued timetables based on EL AL’s submission to the Official Airline Guide World-wide edition, as in this example.
This page from the above April 1961 timetable highlights the first nonstop flights from New York to Tel Aviv, starting June 1961, via EL AL’s new Boeing 707 jet aircraft.
In 1962 adopted as its main logo the square ‘EL AL’ in Latin and Hebrew characters, designed by Otto Treumann in coordination with George Him. In 1963 EL AL introduced a new standard timetable cover style with the EL AL square. This style continued, in different colors, until 1975.
Timetable in Hebrew issued by EL AL’s Tel Aviv office, effective 5 April – 17 October 1964. The inside pages of the 1963-1975 timetable style continued to vary depending on the date and the issuing office.
Summer 1971 timetable issued by EL AL’s ‘Benelux’ offices — Brussels and Amsterdam. All text is bilingual – Dutch and French.
Inside page in EL AL’s timetable effective 13 October 1963 showing EL AL’s route map and hand baggage regulations at the time.
Cover and all inside pages from the New York office Summer 1966 timetable. There were now two nonstop flights a week from New York to Tel Aviv with EL AL’s 707s, but all westbound flights to New York still made a stop in Europe.In Winter 1967-68 some of EL AL’s timetables started listing flights in tabular form like this example from the timetable effective 31 March to 21 September 1968.
EL AL’s U.K. offices occasionally issued quick reference timetables listing only EL AL flights to and from the U.K. along with connections from Tel Aviv to such destinations as Nairobi and Johannesburg.
During 1976 – 1978 these London office quick reference timetables featured EL AL flight attendants on the cover.
From Winter 1977 to Winter 1979/80 EL AL issued timetables with multi-views of EL AL personnel. The front cover shows EL AL’s ‘unified’ logo combining the Latin and Hebrew words for ‘EL AL’, designed by Dan Reisinger, which replaced the square logo as the airline’s main logo. The back cover at left shows an EL AL 747-200 (entered fleet in 1971) and a list of offices.
Winter 1978/1979 timetable. The ’30’ at the top of this style of timetable is the logo of the State of Israel’s 30th anniversary.
Inside schedule of the 1978 Fall timetable. The 1977-1979 timetable group introduced for the first time on a consistent basis the above style of showing scheduled flights.
During 1980-1982 EL AL continued to picture employees on the front of its timetables, but changed the cover layout and added a painting of an EL AL historical aircraft near the top.
Unusually, in 1981 EL AL issued at least two timetables depicting Israeli scenes. Spring 1981 shows Massada and Summer 1981 shows souvenir shopping.
From Winter 1981/82 through Summer 1983 EL AL issued timetables with very plain covers. In 1983 it started using the word ‘Timetable’ instead of ‘Schedule’. or (in London) ‘Time Table’. The back cover of the Summer 1983 issue at right shows an EL AL 767-200 introduced to its fleet that year.
From Fall 1983 through 1989 EL AL employed a new standard timetable format for the cover and inside pages, designed by Ruth Rahat.
There were usually 3 or 4 issues annually, each in a different color for the cover. Some stated ‘issue one’, contemplating a possible revision during the effective period, and an occasional timetable does say ‘issue two’.
In Fall 1988 and 1989 EL AL’s timetable covers, like this one, included the airline’s 40th anniversary logo.
Inside pages of the 1983 Winter timetable.
Unusually, the U.K. offices occasionally continued this timetable cover style until at least 1997 even though EL AL changed its standard timetable cover style in 1990 as shown below. (Reuven Peled collection)
About Fall 1986 EL AL started issuing Worldwide timetables that added numerous connections between flights of EL AL and flights operated by other airlines to and from cities not served by EL AL. The above style of the Worldwide timetable continued until about 1990/91 when the cover style changed.
In 1990 EL AL changed the standard style of its timetable covers. The unified two-language ‘EL AL’ logo was placed diagonally against a background of two diagonal shades of blue on a field of white, designed by Dan Reisinger. Starting in 1992 there were usually two timetable issues each year, ‘Summer’. and ‘Winter’. This cover style continued until 1999.
The EL AL ‘Worldwide’ timetable issues in the 1990s also featured the changed timetable cover style, except the background was silver instead of white.
Style example of inside pages of above Summer 1990 timetable.
In 2000 EL AL again changed the standard style of its timetable covers to show an arcs design, prepared by Ruth Rahat. Also starting in 2000 all standard style EL AL timetables were ‘Worldwide’, that is, also showing connections with other airlines.
Starting with the Winter 2000/01 timetable, the arrangement of the text on the covers changed and the word “Worldwide’ was deleted. The Winter 2002/03 timetable introduced ‘Passengers and Cargo’ to the title, and this Winter 2003/04 timetable added the bottom note ‘online schedule on website wwwelal.co.il’, anticipating the time when online timetables would completely replace hard copy ones.
In 2006 EL AL modified its classic unified logo by slightly changing the shape of its letters. This Summer 2006 timetable is the first to show the modified logo.
In late 2006 EL AL chose to use a darker blue in its promotional materials, and the Winter 2006/7 introduced that darker blue and changed the arc shape and the background color, as shown in this Winter 2007/89. Insofar as the author knows, this Winter 2007/8 timetable is the last standard one printed by EL AL, as it then published standard schedules only online.
Specialty EL AL Timetables
In addition to systemwide timetables, EL AL has issued some schedules solely covering cargo flights, and individual offices have issued nonstandard timetables mainly covering flights from and to the cities served by those offices. Here are some selected examples.
1961-1962 Winter timetable, 13cm diameter, issued by the New York office showing airline fights that connect with EL AL’s 9:30PM Boeing 707 flights from New York JFK Airport to Tel Aviv. The top circle is movable to show the connection from each city shown on the bottom circle. In this illustration the connection from Los Angeles is shown as American Airlines flight 34.
Cover of cargo timetable effective 22 June 1980 issued by the U.S. offices.
Timetable issued by the Frankfurt office showing the start of EL AL Boeing 767 flights on 8 August 1983 between Frankfurt and Tel Aviv. EL AL was the first airline to operate the 767 on commercial flights in Europe.
1984-1985 Winter cargo systemwide timetable, front cover.
Cover of 1987-1988 U.K. branch timetable listing EL AL’s flights from and to the U.K.
Timetable effective 28 March 2000 limited to fights from and to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. An EL AL 747-400 (entered service in 1994) is on the cover.
2000 timetable cover (showing scenes and art of old Safed) containing Spring, Summer and Fall schedules for flights between the U.S. and Tel Aviv, New York office issue.
Fall Schedule inside the preceding 2000 timetable.
2008 foldable pocket timetable issued in Hebrew by the Israel office. The cover is shown at right and two of nine inside pages are shown at left.
Insofar as is known to the author, EL AL stopped issuing printed systemwide timetables after 2008. Instead it placed comprehensive schedules only on its website. However, individual EL AL offices continued to occasionally issue timetables covering flights between Tel Aviv and the cities served by those offices. Here are some examples.
U.K. office timetable for Winter 2013-2014 and Summer 2014.Timetable issued by offices in Germany, effective 25 October 2015. The left cover refers to the coming introduction of Boeing 787 Dreamliners into EL AL’s fleet, and the right cover shows an EL AL 737-800 in its ‘UP’ brand livery utilized for a short period on flights between Tel Aviv and Berlin.
Cover of 2019 Summer timetable and brochure issued by EL AL’s offices in Germany in the form of a small 22-page booklet.
Two of the 22 inside pages of the preceding Summer 2019 timetable booklet.
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