El Al said it spent weeks preparing for a large-scale war with Iran and is now using those plans to help return stranded American and Israeli passengers home, while keeping prices fixed and adding flights to the US under wartime restrictions.
In a background briefing, an El Al spokeswoman said the airline had drawn key lessons from previous rounds of fighting and spent about six weeks preparing for the possibility of a broader conflict with Iran, in which the threat from ballistic missiles and the disruption to civil aviation were expected to be far greater than in past wars with Hamas in Gaza.
That early preparation, she said, had allowed the airline to move quickly once the fighting began.
The first priority was to protect El Al’s fleet so it could resume service as soon as Israeli airspace reopened. Of the company’s 47 aircraft, about one-third were already abroad and roughly two-thirds were in Israel when the emergency began. Around 30 planes were on the ground in Israel, and pilots were instructed on short notice to fly aircraft out of Ben-Gurion Airport to safer destinations abroad.
According to the spokeswoman, several crew members left immediately, in some cases leaving their families behind without knowing how long they would remain away. She described that first stage as essential to preserving the airline’s ability to restart operations once authorities approved passenger flights.
In the days that followed, El Al focused on building passenger lists and preparing replacement flights for customers whose journeys had been disrupted. The airline said it worked from existing manifests so that once approvals came through, it could quickly begin reassigning travelers. Priority for outbound travel from Israel was first allocated to passengers whose flights were canceled on February 28, according to the briefing.
El Al’s communication challenge
The spokeswoman said communication became a central challenge almost immediately. El Al’s call centers were flooded with tens of thousands of calls a day, while staff answered customers from protected rooms and handled inquiries on WhatsApp in parallel. The airline also launched a dedicated bot to handle routine questions and reduce the burden on customer service teams.
She said that the company adopted a simple approach during the crisis: Customers needed updates even when there was little new information to share.
So far, El Al has brought over 35,000 of its customers back to Israel on its flights without charging them extra, the spokeswoman said. Passengers whose original El Al flights were canceled were reassigned to rescue flights at no additional cost. Customers were also offered the option of a refund or voucher, but those already booked on a rescue flight kept their place and were not removed to make room for others.
That policy stands out at a time when many stranded travelers have had to navigate canceled tickets, refunds, and expensive replacement fares across the international aviation market. El Al said it kept a uniform price structure for new rescue flights, without the sharp fare increases often seen when seats become scarce.
The airline is currently operating in a highly restricted environment. According to the spokeswoman, Home Front Command limits at Ben-Gurion allow only two narrow-body aircraft or one wide-body aircraft per hour. Outbound flights were initially capped at 100 passengers per plane, even on larger aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, because of rules designed to prevent dangerous crowding at the airport during missile threats.
Those restrictions have forced El Al to work as a much smaller airline than usual. The company is now operating about 20 flights a day, compared with roughly 160 flight segments on a normal day, namely at about one-fifth of its regular activity.
For American readers, the airline said the United States has become one of its main priorities in the current phase. With the approval of Israeli authorities, and in coordination with the US government and the American ambassador in Israel, El Al said it had secured permission to operate five additional daily flights to the United States on top of its regular service.
El Al is now running about nine flights a day to the US, including services to New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. Some passengers are being routed through European hubs such as Paris, Frankfurt, and Munich to help clear the backlog of Americans who were stranded in Israel and are trying to get home, the spokeswoman reported.
El Al said it had deliberately concentrated rescue traffic through major hubs, including Paris, London, and New York, rather than overwhelming closer airports such as Athens or Larnaca. The airline said its 25 rescue destinations now cover more than 90% of its customer base, with passengers from smaller cities routed through nearby hubs. A traveler bound for Munich, for example, might be sent through Frankfurt.
The airline also outlined several options specifically in place for US citizens.
American citizens in Israel who are El Al customers can fill out an English-language form and, according to the briefing, may be proactively assigned to rescue flights. US citizens whose original tickets were with Delta or United can also submit a form through El Al’s US website and may be placed on special rescue flights designated for non-El Al passengers. Those seats are priced at $899 one-way in economy class, according to the airline.
El Al said Delta codeshare passengers are treated as El Al customers for these purposes.
For Americans still planning to come to Israel, the airline said inbound seats remain available and can be purchased on its website. One-way tickets are currently priced at $699, while a round-trip itinerary comes to about $1,400, according to the briefing. The spokeswoman said the airline is telling travelers that while it cannot promise exactly when return service will normalize, it is committed to getting them home.
For the latest rules, flight options, and forms for US citizens, El Al said American travelers should check the airline’s US website, where wartime procedures and updates are being posted.