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El Al Boeing 747 Seat Maps

El Al's 747-400 cabins are documented twice: an original 408-seat layout with 52 business seats and a later refurbishment seating 403 in four classes, with business class across the upper deck in both.

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El Al was one of the earliest 747 operators in the Middle East, and its jumbos became identified with the one route geography forced on the airline: Tel Aviv to New York nonstop, flown across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with no friendly diversion airfield along much of the way. The 747 had the legs for it, and El Al configured the type as a premium-heavy long-haul aircraft.

The original 408-seat cabin

The 747-400 arrived in 1994, and the original cabin carried 408 seats: a small 8-seat First Class cabin in the nose with 100-inch full-flat seats, 52 business seats split between six rows on the upper deck (2-2) and the main deck (2-3-2), and 348 economy seats at 3-4-3. Business class upstairs was the prized position, as on most 747-400s.

The refurbished cabin

A later refurbishment reworked the aircraft into four classes while cutting the total to 403 seats. First stayed at 8 in the nose and business moved to 47 seats on the main deck plus the upper deck, but the change was the new Premium Economy cabin — marketed as Seat PLUS — with 34 seats in rows 21–25. Economy settled at 314 seats at 3-4-3. A handful of ex-Singapore Airlines 747-412s, acquired from 2008, flew a 12-seat First variant instead, and published counts for those frames conflict with their own class breakdowns, so no single total is reliable.

The classic 747-200

The airline’s 747-200Bs, from 1971, followed the early pattern: First Class in the nose and a lounge or sleeper area in the small upper deck. The Israel Airline Museum records that roughly 400 seats were configured for the nonstop Tel Aviv–New York missions, but no exact classic seat plan is known. 26 747s of all marks served El Al; the last passenger 747 was retired in November 2019.

Cabin archive

Visual seat maps

Cabin zones run from the nose on the left to the tail on the right. Seat symbols show the typical abreast pattern, not every individual row.

Historical reconstruction1994–c.2010

El Al 747-400 original layout

El Al's original 747-400: 8 First Class seats, 52 business seats across the upper deck and main deck, and 348 economy seats.

408passenger seats
Upper deckBusiness class
Business Class2-2 typicalSix rows forming part of the 52-seat cabin
Main deckNose at left
First Class8 seats · 2-2 typicalFull-flat seats
Business Class2-3-2 typical
Economy348 seats · 3-4-3 typical

Map note: First Class was a small 8-seat 2-2 cabin with 100-inch full-flat seats; business class sat 2-2 across six rows on the upper deck and 2-3-2 on the main deck; economy was 3-4-3. The first four aircraft were delivered new from 1994.

Configuration source: SeatGuru, archived by the Wayback Machine (2009)

Archived configurationc.2010–2019

El Al 747-400 refurbished layout

El Al's refurbished four-class 747-400: 8 First, 47 business, 34 Premium Economy and 314 economy seats.

403passenger seats
Upper deckBusiness class
Business Class2-2 typicalRows 72–79
Main deckNose at left
First Class8 seats · 2-2 typicalNose cabin
Business Class2-3-2 typicalRows 10–13
Premium Economy34 seatsSeat PLUS, rows 21–25
Economy314 seats · 3-4-3 typical

Map note: The refurbishment kept the small nose First cabin and the upper-deck business cabin (2-2, rows 72–79), added a Premium Economy cabin marketed as Seat PLUS in rows 21–25, and trimmed business to 47 seats on the main deck at 2-3-2. Economy remained 3-4-3.

Configuration source: SeatGuru, archived by the Wayback Machine (2019)

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the primary and institutional references below.

  1. El Al 747-400 seat map — SeatGuru, archived by the Wayback Machine
  2. El Al 747-400 (D) seat map — SeatGuru, archived by the Wayback Machine
  3. Chapter 6 — The Jumbo Ark: Boeing 747s, 1971–1982 — Israel Airline Museum

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