Israel Airlines, Tel Aviv, Israel 1958
El Al Israel Airlines is the national airline of Israel. It operates international scheduled passenger flights to Africa, Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East and is based at Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv. The airline was established on 15 November 1948 and started operations in August 1949 with a service from Tel Aviv to Rome and Paris, extended a year later to London. On December 22, 1957, it began operating the new Bristol Britannia turboprop aircraft for non-stop transatlantic services. El Al was the second international airline, after the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), to fly the extremely reliable Britannia planes. During this period, most large airlines were replacing piston-engine planes with turboprops. Gradually, El Al increased its Tel Aviv-New York service to five flights a week and within a year of beginning this route, had doubled its share of the Atlantic traffic. 4X-AGA was the first of five Britannias ordered by the airline and was delivered on 5th September 1957. It was sold to Swiss airline, Globe Air, in April 1964, but was damaged beyond repair when it undershot the runway at Nicosia, Cyprus on 20th April 1967. Released: September 2007