Challenge Airlines, formerly CAL Cargo Airlines Ltd. (), is a cargo airline with its corporate headquarters in Shoham, Israel.
History CAL was established in June 1976, starting charter operations in November of that year. Originally, the airline leased aircraft from El Al 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's Ben Gurion Airport and New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.
The new name Challenge Airlines was adopted in 2016. In 2017, the airline made news headlines for buying a Boeing 747 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 in Belgium. 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 such as fine art. The company slogan is Challenge accepted.
In April 2026, during Israel's war against Iran, the company has been noticed shipping undeclared military material from Liège to Israel, in spite of the embargo put in place by the Belgian government.
Destinations Challenge IL operates freight services to the following scheduled destinations (as of May 2024).
CountryCityAirportNotesRefsBelgiumLiègeLiège AirportChinaZhengzhouZhengzhou International Airport Hong KongHong KongHong Kong International Airport NorwayOsloOslo Gardermoen Airport IsraelTel AvivBen Gurion Airport
Malta-based Challenge Airlines MT received its AOC in 2022 and in the following year was delivered the first Boeing 767-300F. The fleet currently consists of two Boeing 767-430Fs.
ACE Aviation (ACE Air Cargo Europe) was established in 2016. In the month of April of the following year all ground operations were transferred to ACE Belgium Freighters S.A.. It received its AOC in 2019 and flight operations started in the month of May with Boeing 747-400F transferred from the main airline. On June 16, 2020, the corporate name was changed to Challenge Airlines (BE) S.A. The fleet currently consists of three Boeing 747-400Fs
Fleet Current fleet , Challenge Airlines operates the following aircraft:
+ Challenge Airlines IL fleetAircraftIn fleetOrdersNotesBoeing 747-400ERF1Boeing 747-400F1Boeing 767-300BDSF1Total3
Former fleet , Challenge Airlines IL operated 2 Boeing 747-400ERF, 2 Boeing 747-400F, 3 Boeing 767-300BDSF and 1 Boeing 777-300ERSF + Challenge Airlines IL historic fleetAircraftTotalYear introducedYear retiredReplacementNotesRefsBoeing 707119861987Boeing 747-200FBoeing 747-100F119931993NoneLeased from Atlas AirBoeing 747-200F419992017Boeing 747-400FOne aircraft was written off in a landing accident in Liège Airport.Boeing 747-400BCF120162019NoneTransferred to Challenge Airlines BE.Boeing 747-400ERF220192022NoneTransferred to Challenge Airlines BE.
See also List of airlines of Israel Economy of Israel
References
External links
Official website