El Al Israel Airlines (LY, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) will wet-lease a B747-400(F) freighter from Atlas Air (5Y, New York JFK) to operate its trunk Liège-Tel Aviv Ben Gurion cargo route starting this month, the US carrier announced.

"This strategic initiative with Atlas Air enables us to provide our customers with a stable and high-quality operation for all types of cargo. Atlas Air's fleet of 747 aircraft is well-suited to support El Al's operations and schedules," the Head of El Al's Cargo Division, Ronen Spira, said.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, El Al does not have any in-house freighter aircraft following the retirement of its last B747-400(F) in 2019. The Israeli airline therefore wet-leases capacity from other airlines to operate its only scheduled cargo route - between Tel Aviv and Liège. Flights prior to the end of 2019 were operated with a ACG Air Cargo Global (Bratislava) B747-400(F).

For its part, Atlas Air operates five B747-400s, forty B747-400(F)s, ten B747-8(F)s, one B767-200, nine B767-200(F)s, five B767-300(ER)s, and twenty-four B767-300Fs.