November 15, 1948
El Al, Israel’s national airline, is officially founded and legally incorporated as the El Al Israel Air Co. with a capitalization of 1.1 million lira. The Israeli government holds the controlling interest in the airline, while various Israeli corporations, most notably steamship company ZIM, own shares. The name of the airline is taken from the Book of Hosea (11:7) and means “upward” or “to the skies.”
Israel first used the name seven weeks earlier. On September 29, 1948, Chaim Weizmann was abroad in Geneva after an eye operation. Because of an embargo on Israel and other combatants in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Israel was not able to use a military plane to retrieve Weizmann and bring him home. Instead, an Israeli Air Force DC-4 was painted and branded as “El-Al Ltd. — Israel National Aviation Company” and flown to Geneva to pick up Weizmann and his wife. After his return, Weizmann was sworn in as Israel’s first president.
Moshe Shertok (Sharett) flew on the plane from Israel to Geneva, where he delivered citizenship papers to Weizmann, then continued to the United Nations sessions in Paris. The flight from Geneva to Israel took just under 10 hours and was staffed by a crew described by The Jerusalem Post as “dressed in dark-blue uniforms with silver braided cuffs and caps, and included two members of the Women’s Auxiliary as hostesses, as well as a steward.”
After bringing the new president back to Israel, the plane returned to military service.
In the early years of El Al, the airline focuses on bringing in refugees from Yemen and Iraq. In July 1949, it inaugurates its first regular commercial service, a weekly flight between Lod airport, near Tel Aviv, and Paris. In June 1950, after the ratification of the U.S.-Israel air agreement, the airline begins flying regular charter service between Lod and New York.
