Sundor (, previously styled as Sun d'Or) is an Israeli

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

brand and former airline with its base at

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew language, Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, i ...

. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of

El Al EL AL Israel Airlines Ltd. (), trading as EL AL (, "Upwards", "To the Skies", or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ) is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv in September 1948, the airline has grown to serve ...

, which uses the brand mainly for seasonal scheduled and charter services, mostly to European destinations. All of their flights are operated by

, as Sundor's own license was suspended in 2011.

History

Sundor was established on 1 October 1977 as ''El Al Charter Services Ltd.'', as a subsidiary of

at a time when the airline was fully owned by the

State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

. 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

. 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

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. 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. 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 Israir Airlines Ltd., more commonly referred to as Israir, is an Israeli low-cost airline headquartered in Tel Aviv. It operates domestic scheduled and air taxi flights from Ben Gurion International Airport, Ramon Airport, and Haifa Airport as w ...

. While Sundor would be dissolved, El Al would gain shares in Israir instead.

Destinations

Sundor branded flights are operated by

to the following destinations as of January 2024:

Fleet

, the fleet operated under the Sun d'Or brand consists of the following aircraft:

References

External links

Official Sundor page on El AL website
{{Transportation in Israel 1977 establishments in Israel 2011 disestablishments in Israel Airlines of Israel Airlines established in 1977 Airlines disestablished in 2011 El Al Israeli brands