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Sundor

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Sundor
סאן דור
IATA ICAO Call sign
LY ELY ELAL
Founded1977; 48 years ago (1977)
HubsBen Gurion Airport
Frequent-flyer programMatmid
Fleet size5
Destinations17
Parent companyEl Al
HeadquartersTel Aviv, Israel
Key peopleOlga Alauof, President
Websitesundor.co.il

Sundor (Hebrew: סאן דור, also styled as Sundor) 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 Sundor's own license was suspended in 2011.

History

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Sundor Airlines logo before rebranding in 2024

Sundor 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 Sundor (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 "Sundor - סאן דור" title.

In 1988 Sundor had its head office in the El Al House in Tel Aviv.[1]

Since April 2001, Sundor 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, Sundor 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.

Sundor 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 Sundor 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 Sundor. 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 Sundor'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, Sundor 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 Sundor would be dissolved, El Al would gain shares in Israir instead.[4]

Destinations

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

Sundor branded flights are operated by El Al to the following destinations as of January 2024:[5]

Country City Airport Notes Refs
 Albania Tirana Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza Begins 31 March 2025 [6]
 Croatia Zagreb Zagreb Franjo Tuđman Airport Terminated [7]
 Cyprus Larnaca Larnaca International Airport [8]
Paphos Paphos International Airport Seasonal [8]
 Egypt Sharm El Sheikh Sharm El Sheikh International Airport Terminated
 Georgia Batumi Alexander Kartveli Batumi International Airport Seasonal
Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi International Airport [9][10]
 Greece Heraklion Heraklion International Airport "Nikos Kazantzakis" Resumes 30 March 2025 [11]
Kefalonia Kefalonia International Airport Seasonal [12]
Mykonos Mykonos Airport Begins 31 March 2025 [11]
Rhodes Rhodes Airport Seasonal [13]
Sitia Sitia Public Airport Seasonal [12]
Thessaloniki Thessaloniki Airport Seasonal [13][10]
Thira Santorini International Airport Seasonal [14]
 Israel Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport Hub
 Italy Naples Naples International Airport Seasonal [10]
 Moldova Chișinău Chișinău International Airport [13]
 Montenegro Podgorica Podgorica Airport Seasonal [15]
Tivat Tivat Airport Seasonal [16][10]
 Poland Kraków Kraków John Paul II International Airport [10]
Warsaw Warsaw Chopin Airport [8]
 Portugal Porto Porto Airport Seasonal [17]
 Serbia Belgrade Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport [18]
 Slovenia Ljubljana Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport Terminated [19]
 Turkey Istanbul Istanbul Airport Terminated [20]

Fleet

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As of January 2025, the fleet operated under the Sun d'Or brand consists of the following aircraft:[21]

Sundor Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers Notes
Boeing 737-800 5 — 189 2 Operated by El Al 4X-EKR; 4X-EKM and 3 leased from KlasJet: LY-SPU;LY-PMI;LY-SLX or LY-LOC
Total 5 —

References

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  1. ^ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. 26 March 1988. 117 Archived 14 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ "Sundor 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 Sundor has operating licence withdrawn".
  4. ^ "Israel's el al confirms talks to merge Sundor with Israir".
  5. ^ "Flights Sundor". Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  6. ^ Liu, Jim (14 January 2025). "Sundor Adds Tirana Service in NS25". AeroRoutes. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  7. ^ "Israel's Sun d'Or cancels most EX-YU flights". ExYuAviation. 23 March 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  8. ^ a b c "Sundor NS24 A320 operations - 14Jan24". AeroRoutes. 16 January 2024. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  9. ^ "Sundor Adds New Seasonal Weekly Service in S16". Airlineroute.net. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  10. ^ a b c d e "Sun d'Or NS24 A320 Operations – 14JAN24". AeroRoutes. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  11. ^ a b Liu, Jim (31 December 2024). "Sun d'Or NS25 Greece Network Additions". AeroRoutes. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  12. ^ a b "Sun d'Or NS24 Greece Network Additions". AeroRoutes. 13 May 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  13. ^ a b c Liu, Jim (12 September 2018). "El Al / Sun d'Or schedules new seasonal routes in S19". Routesonline. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  14. ^ "ממשיכה להתרחב: סאן דור משיקה קו חדש לבלגרד". פספורטניוז (in Hebrew). 10 June 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  15. ^ Liu, Jim (19 August 2024). "Sun d'Or NW24 Preliminary Network Additions". AeroRoutes. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  16. ^ "Flights to tivat". www.elal.com. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  17. ^ Liu, Jim (11 July 2024). "Sun d'Or Resumes Tel Aviv – Porto Service in NS24". AeroRoutes. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  18. ^ "El Al's Sun d'Or to launch scheduled Belgrade flights". EX-YU Aviation News. 11 June 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Sun d'Or Adds Smartwings 737 Service to Slovenia in NS24". AeroRoutes. 21 March 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  20. ^ "Sun d'Or Airlines Resumes Flights to iGA Istanbul Airport". IST Airport. 30 March 2023. p. 1.
  21. ^ "Aircrafts [sic] Sun d'Or". Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
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Media related to Sundor at Wikimedia Commons

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