Editing El Al (section)

=== 1970s: Going Boeing ===
{{Rail freight
|float=right
|title=Revenue passenger-kilometers, scheduled flights only, in millions
|1950|50
|1955|138
|1960|413
|1965|1331
|1969|2070
|1971|3027
|1980|4590
|1985|6507
|1995|11287
|2000|14125
|source=ICAO Digest of Statistics for 1950–55, IATA World Air Transport Statistics 1960–2000
}}

[[File:El Al 707 at Zurich 1982.jpg|thumb|An El Al [[Boeing 707|Boeing 707-300B]] landing at [[Zurich Airport]], [[Switzerland]] (1982)|left]]
[[File:El Al Boeing 767-200 4X-EAB LHR 1985-5-17.png|thumb|An El Al [[Boeing 767-200]] on short final to [[Heathrow Airport|London Heathrow Airport]] in 1985]]

El Al acquired its first [[Boeing 747]] jet in 1971. Many{{who|reason=who are those many?|date=May 2016}} felt it was a risky purchase given the high cost of the plane and fear of attacks, but El Al operations flourished after the purchase. Another Boeing 747 was delivered in 1973 and was used to start non-stop service from Tel Aviv to [[New York City|New York]] (El Al – Boeing 707s had flown eastward nonstop since around 1961).

El Al passengers and passengers from other airlines were attacked at Lod Airport in 1972, it was known as the [[Lod Airport massacre]].

In the mid-1970s El Al began to schedule flights from airports outside of Israel that departed on the [[Shabbat|Jewish shabbat]] and landed in Israel after it had finished. However, the religious parties in the government were outraged by this change believing that it was a violation of Jewish law and contrary to the agreement signed in the early days of the state, in which El Al promised to refrain from flying on the Sabbath. In 1982 the newly re-elected prime minister [[Menachem Begin]], brought before the [[Knesset]] a vote to ban Sabbath flights once again (it passed by a vote of 58 to 54).<ref name="begin">{{cite book |title=The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership |last=Avner |first=Yehuda |author-link=Yehuda Avner |year=2010 |publisher=The Toby Press |isbn=978-1-59264-278-6 |page=599}}</ref> Outraged, the secular community threatened to boycott the airline. In August 1982 El Al workers blocked [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and [[Hasidic]] Jews from entering the airport.<ref name="Shabbat" />

In 1977 El Al established a charter subsidiary, El Al Charter Services Ltd., later renamed [[Sun D'Or|Sun D'Or International Airlines Ltd]]. Two years earlier the airline had suffered its first losses since the late 1950s, largely a product of the global recession. The management changed three times towards the end of the 1970s until Itzhak Shander was named president.{{clarify|reason=until? It changes again in 1982. This could be explained better|date=May 2016}} As the political situation in Iran deteriorated, El Al began to airlift Jews to Israel. All the airline's infrastructure in Iran was eventually destroyed.<ref name="answers" />