"The opening of up the skies to additional routes will mean that airlines operating in Israel will invest $6-10 billion in the purchase of new aircraft over the next 20 years," said Boeing Corp. (NYSE: BA) VP marketing Andrew McGill, who is currently visiting Israel. He said that to meet the increase in demand in flights to Israel, airlines will have to purchase between sixty to eighty new aircraft, add seating capacity and replace outdated equipment.
As for El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), McGill said that Boeing believes that the combination of the new 787 aircraft and the 777 aircraft that El Al has already bought, will improve the airlines' ability to cope with the greater demand, adding that Boeing was now in talks with El Al on the purchase of additional aircraft.
El Al CEO Haim Romano confirmed that the airline was in talks with Boeing for the purchase of 777 aircraft and newer models of 737 to replace the airline's older model of 757 aircraft, but stressed that no agreement had as yet been reached.
According to McGill, the combined fleet of all three Israeli airlines, El Al, Arkia Airlines Ltd., and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. totals 50 aircraft, a third of which are wide-bodied jets. He predicted that this proportion would increase to half of the airlines' fleet within 20 years as incoming tourism to Israel increases.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 12, 2007
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