El Al, an Israeli airline, said on Sunday that it was adding Boeing planes to its fleet to fulfill strong summer travel demand.

Israel’s national carrier grounded six 777s at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, suspending all flights between March and September 2020 due to falling demand. It had already withdrawn its aged 747s, which had been replaced by 15 new Dreamliner 787 aircraft on long-haul routes to North America and Asia.

The airline owns six 777 planes with an average age of over two decades and has stated that it would restore some of them to service for flights to Bangkok, Phuket, Athens, and Dubai, all of which are in high demand.

According to figures from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport, the number of passengers on El Al increased by 151% in June compared to June 2021. El Al carried 1.6 million passengers in the first half of 2022, up from 400,000 the previous year.