The State of Israel has unveiled its first aircraft for VIP transport needs in the form of B767-300(ER) 4X-ISR (msn 30186). The aircraft will be operated by the Israeli Air Force (IAF, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion).
The aircraft is a 19.4-year-old unit which was delivered to Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) and in 2016, taken over by Cargo Aircraft Management for ABX Air (GB, Wilmington Air Park), although it never operated for the American cargo specialist. It was ferried from Wilmington Air Park to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion on July 21, 2016, according to FlightAware data, and then converted to a VIP configuration by Israel Aerospace Industries (Tel Aviv Ben Gurion). The Israeli firm shared a photo of the aircraft's first test flight on November 3, 2019.
The B767 has yet to enter into service for the government.
The Israeli government spent NIS729 million shekels (USD208 million) for the acquisition and conversion of the B767, the Times of Israel has reported. When originally approved five years ago, the budget for the transaction was set at NIS170 million (USD49 million).
Thus far, the Israeli government did not have any dedicated aircraft for VIP transport. Instead, the government members were usually travelling on El Al Israel Airlines (LY, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) aircraft. The Israeli Air Force does not operate any other passenger aircraft.
