Sun d'Or

Sun d'Or (Hebrew: סאן דור, also styled as Sund'or) is an Israeli airline brand and former airline with its base at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of El Al which uses the brand mainly for seasonal scheduled and charter services mostly to European destinations. All of their flights are operated by El Al as Sun d'Or's own license was suspended in 2011.

Sun d'Or
סאן דור
IATA ICAO Callsign
LY ELY EL AL
Founded1977 (1977)
HubsBen Gurion Airport
Frequent-flyer programMatmid
Fleet size5
Destinations17
Parent companyEl Al
HeadquartersTel Aviv, Israel
Key peopleOlga Alauof, President
Websitesundor.co.il

History

Sun d'Or was established on 1 October 1977 as El Al Charter Services Ltd., as a subsidiary of El Al at a time when the airline was fully owned by the State. The airline changed its name in 1981 to Sun d’Or (d’Or means "of Gold" in French), and soon after, Uriel Yashiv, the CEO of the airline at the time, chose to add "International Airlines" to the airline's name to create Sun d'Or International Airlines. This additional qualification is not used in Hebrew, however, and both aircraft flown by the company bear solely the "Sun d'Or - סאן דור" title.

In 1988 Sun d'Or had its head office in the El Al House in Tel Aviv.[1]

Since April 2001, Sun d'Or had grown to become a significant player in the Israeli charter market. The airline also operated flights for incoming tourists, on behalf of European and Israeli operators. In January 2005, Sun d'Or became a private company following the privatisation of El Al. The airline is licensed for the commercial transport of passengers and cargo on charter flights to and from Israel and owned an Air Operator Certificate to operate two leased planes that were fully serviced by El Al's maintenance.

Sun D’Or International Airlines remained a fully owned subsidiary company of El Al and as such its passengers could take advantage of this association. Benefits included the ability for passengers to accumulate El Al frequent flyer points on Sun d'Or flights, and the supplying of food including all types of special meals through Tamam-Catering, an El-Al Subsidiary. El Al also provided ground services, air crews and aircraft for Sun d'Or. The airline had introduced a new look website and were to apply the same to their fleet as well.[2]

In March 2011, The Israel Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced the suspension of Sun d'Or's operating license effective 1 April 2011. The CAA based its decision citing non-compliance with Israeli and international airline management standards, mainly lack of self-owned planes and crew.[3] Since then, Sun d'Or no longer operates own aircraft but utilizes planes from its parent, El Al.

In May 2015, El Al confirmed it was in merger talks with its competitor Israir Airlines. While Sun d'Or would be dissolved, El Al would gain shares in Israir instead.[4]

Destinations
Main article: List of El Al destinations
A former Sun d'Or Boeing 707, departing from Düsseldorf Airport in 1984
A former Sun d'Or Boeing 757-200, retired in 2011 and broken up in 2012
Sun d'Or Boeing 737-800 operated by El Al

Sun d'Or branded flights are operated by El Al to the following destinations as of February 2019:[5]

Country City Airport Notes Refs
AustriaSalzburgSalzburg AirportSeasonal[6]
CroatiaDubrovnikDubrovnik AirportSeasonal[7]
ZagrebZagreb AirportSeasonal
EgyptSharm El SheikhSharm El Sheikh International Airport
GeorgiaBatumiBatumi International AirportSeasonal[8]
TbilisiTbilisi International Airport[9]
GreeceThessalonikiMacedonia International AirportSeasonal[6]
IsraelTel AvivBen Gurion AirportHub
ItalyCataniaCatania–Fontanarossa AirportSeasonal
NaplesNaples International AirportSeasonal
NetherlandsAmsterdamAmsterdam Airport SchipholSeasonal
PolandKrakówKraków John Paul II International Airport
PortugalPortoPorto AirportSeasonal
RussiaSochiSochi International AirportSeasonal[10]
SloveniaLjubljanaLjubljana Jože Pučnik AirportSeasonal
SpainBarcelonaBarcelona–El Prat Airport
Turkey Istanbul Istanbul International Airport [11]
UkraineOdesaOdesa International AirportSeasonal

Fleet

As of May 2019, the fleet operated under the Sun d'Or brand consists of the following aircraft:[12]

Sun d'Or Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
Boeing 737-800 3 — 189 Operated by AirExplore
2 Operated by El Al
Total 5 —

References
  1. "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 26 March 1988. 117 Archived 14 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. "Sun d'Or Boeing 757 featuring a modified new look in Berlin special fare promotional". Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  3. "Israel's Sun d'Or has operating licence withdrawn".
  4. "Israel's el al confirms talks to merge Sun d'Or with Israir".
  5. "Flights Sun d'or". Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  6. Liu, Jim (12 September 2018). "El Al / Sun d'Or schedules new seasonal routes in S19". Routesonline. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  7. Liu, Jim (7 November 2018). "Sun d'Or adds Tel Aviv – Dubrovnik seasonal route in S19". Routesonline. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  8. Liu, Jim (25 January 2017). "Sun d'Or plans new routes in S17". Routesonline. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  9. "Sun D'Or Adds New Seasonal Weekly Service in S16". Airlineroute.net. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  10. Liu, Jim (12 March 2019). "El Al / Sun d'Or adds Adler/Sochi service in S19". Routesonline. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  11. "Sun d'Or Airlines Resumes Flights to iGA Istanbul Airport". IST Airport. 30 March 2023. p. 1.
  12. "Aircrafts [sic] Sun d'Or". Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.

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