Challenge Airlines IL, formerly CAL Cargo Airlines Ltd. (), 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, airli ...

with its corporate headquarters in

Shoham Shoham () is a town in the Central District of Israel. The name relates to one of the 12 stones on the Hoshen, the sacred breastplate worn by a Jewish high priest (Exodus 28:20), similar to other nearby towns: Nofekh, Bareket, Leshem and Ahlam ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

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. (), 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 ...

as required; however, on 1 December 1999, it began operating scheduled services using its own aircraft following receipt of Israeli government licences. In 1997, CAL purchased the Liège Airport Cargo Handling Services (LACHS) cargo terminal in Belgium. The facility, which is still fully owned and operated by CAL, 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

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 ...

and New York's

John F Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

. In 2017, the airline made news headlines for buying a

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

on Chinese e-commerce website Taobao.com for around US$23.3 million.

Operations

Challenge IL operates daily scheduled cargo flights and charter services carrying nonstandard goods and general cargo internationally. Its main base is Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and it has a hub at

Liège Airport Liege Airport , previously called Liege-Bierset Airport, is an international airport located in Grâce-Hollogne, 5 nautical miles (9.3 kilometres; 5.8 miles) west of the city of Liège, Belgium. The airport mainly focuses on air freight. At th ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The airline carries approximately 100,000 tons of cargo annually, including all categories of nonstandard cargo: temperature-controlled

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

and healthcare products, live animals,

dangerous goods Dangerous goods are substances that are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment during transport. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabically abbreviate ...

, oversize and overweight cargo, fresh perishable products, and valuable goods such as fine art. The company slogan is ''Challenge accepted.''

Destinations

Challenge IL operates freight services to the following scheduled destinations (as of May 2024).

Fleet

Current fleet

The Challenge Airlines IL fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of November 2024):

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