CAL Cargo Airlines Ltd. ( he, ק.א.ל. קווי אוויר למטען) is a

cargo airline Cargo airlines (or air freight carriers, and derivatives of these names) are airlines mainly dedicated to the transport of air cargo, cargo by air. Some cargo airlines are divisions or subsidiaries of larger passenger airlines. In 2018, airline ...

with its corporate headquarters in the Airport City development of

Ben Gurion International Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is th ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

History

CAL was established in June 1976, starting charter operations in November of that year. Originally, the airline leased aircraft from

El Al El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (, he, אל על נתיבי אויר לישראל בע״מ), trading as El Al (Hebrew: , "Upwards", "To the Skies" or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ar, إل-عال), is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugura ...

as required; however, on 1 December 1999, it began operating scheduled services using its own aircraft following receipt of Israeli government licences issued in early 1999. In 1997, CAL purchased LACHS cargo terminal in Belgium (Liège Airport Cargo Handling Services), which is still fully owned and operated by CAL, and caters to CAL's specialty in nonstandard cargo. In 2010, CAL was purchased privately by Offer Gilboa and expanded its flight operations to include daily flights to and from JFK/TLV. In 2019, the airline made news headlines for buying a Boeing 747 on Chinese e-commerce website

Taobao.com Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba ...

for around US $23,3 million.

Operations

The airline operates daily scheduled cargo flights and charter services carrying nonstandard goods and general cargo internationally. Its main base is Ben Gurion Airport, serving

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

, and it has a hub at

Liège Airport Liege Airport, nl, Luchthaven Luik, german: Flughafen Lüttich , previously called Liege-Bierset Airport,, nl, Luchthaven Luik-Bierset is an international airport located west of the city of Liège, Wallonia in Belgium. The airport mainly fo ...

(

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

). The airline carries approximately 100,000 tons of cargo annually including all categories of nonstandard cargo: temperature-controlled pharmaceutical and healthcare products, live animals, dangerous goods, oversize and overweight cargo, fresh perishable products and valuable goods including fine art. The company slogan is ''Challenge accepted.''

Destinations

CAL Cargo Airlines operates freight services to the following scheduled destinations (as of November 2021). Additionally, CAL Cargo Air Lines supplements its own services across the North Atlantic with

Challenge Airlines Challenge Airlines ( IATA code: X7; ICAO code: CHG) established as ACE Air Cargo Europe and in 2018 rebranded as ACE Belgium Freighteres, is a Belgian cargo airline based in Liege Airport. The carrier operates air cargo services throughout E ...

Fleet

Current fleet

The CAL Cargo Air Lines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2022):

Retired fleet

References

External links

Official website
{{IATA members, europe Airlines established in 1976 Airlines of Israel Cargo airlines of Israel 1976 establishments in Israel