# El Al Cargo (IATA LY · ICAO ELY · AWB 114)

> El Al Cargo is the freight division of Israel's EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd., operating under IATA designator LY and AWB prefix 114. The cargo arm is not a carrier in its own right but a business unit of the passenger company. Its core is belly capacity on the scheduled fleet out of Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, complemented since late October 2023 by one Boeing 737-800 Cargo of its own and one cargo aircraft under wet lease. For shipments to and from Israel, EL AL is the single largest provider at Ben Gurion Airport, with 23.7 per cent of the airport's cargo throughput in the first quarter of 2026. Anyone needing widebody freighter capacity has to buy it elsewhere: the airline operates only one narrowbody freighter.

## Quick facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Legal | EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. |
| IATA | `LY` |
| ICAO | `ELY` |
| AWB prefix | `114` |
| Country | IL |

## Overview

El Al Cargo is the freight division of EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. and not a separate air carrier: the air waybill, liability and claims all rest with the passenger company. EL AL is Israel's national airline, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and runs its operation from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport (TLV). Towards forwarders it appears under IATA designator LY, ICAO code ELY and AWB prefix 114.

The operating model is mixed. Most of the capacity comes from belly space on the airline's own scheduled fleet, complemented since late October 2023 by a dedicated freighter of its own. As of 31 March 2026 the company operated 50 self-operated aircraft, 49 of them in service: 18 Boeing 737-800, 8 Boeing 737-900, 4 Boeing 777-200 in Dreamliner configuration, 2 further Boeing 777-200, 4 Boeing 787-8, 13 Boeing 787-9 and one leased Boeing 737-800 Cargo. A further cargo aircraft was flown under wet lease. The route to an own freighter ran through a licence amendment: on 7 June 2023 the Israeli civil aviation authority extended the commercial licence to all-cargo aircraft after the minimum requirement had been reduced from two freighters to one.

What matters for forwarders is the position at the home airport. In the first quarter of 2026 EL AL held a 23.7 per cent share of total cargo throughput at Ben Gurion Airport, down from 27.5 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year. The company carried 17,900 tonnes of cargo and produced 93.1 million revenue tonne kilometres. The decline reflects the suspension of regular passenger operations during the hostilities and the return of foreign carriers to Israel. No official shipment tracking could be evidenced at the time of research, because the cargo pages on elal.com load their content entirely via JavaScript.

## Hubs

- TLV

## Fleet

- Boeing 737-800 Cargo × 1

- Frachtflugzeug im Wet-Lease (Muster nicht ausgewiesen) × 1

## Sources

- [EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. – Unaudited Financial Statements as of 31 March 2026](https://ir.elal.com/media/z2if15v0/financial-statements-q1-2026-en.pdf)

- [IATA – Current Airline Members, Eintrag EL AL](https://www.iata.org/en/about/members/airline-list/el-al/80/)

- [Air Cargo News – El Al gets clearance to operate freighters](https://www.aircargonews.net/airlines/2023/06/el-al-gets-clearance-to-operate-freighters/)

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