El Al rated Heathrow’s dirtiest, noisiest airline

A new list published by London’s Heathrow Airport rates Israel’s national carrier as the dirtiest and noisiest of all the carriers servicing the the world’s third-largest airport.

According to the survey, El Al came in last place out of 50 airlines, receiving a final score of 362 out of 1,000.

In first place was British Airways short haul, with a score of 953. (British Airways long haul didn’t do quite as well, coming in 19th place with 821.)

El Al received unsatisfactory scores in five of the seven categories: noise quota per seat, noise certification, nitrogen oxide emissions, efficient landing approaches, and arrival times.

The first three are primarily dependent on the aircraft and long-term fleet planning, but the last two categories are measures of the ability of the pilots and crew to land in the most efficient, quietest manner and to avoid landings between 11:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m.

Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow Airport (photo credit: Oxyman/Wikimedia Commons/File)

The Fly Quiet and Clean League ratings aim to shame airlines into adopting cleaner, more efficient practices.

Rounding out the bottom 5, but well ahead of El Al, were Kuwait Airways (484), Middle East Airlines (556), Pakistan International Airlines (565) and Omar Air (572).

The Fly Quiet survey has been published quarterly since mid-2013 and Israel has consistently been in last place, except for three quarterly periods when it rose… to 49th place.