Challenge Airlines IL

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.

Destinations

Challenge IL operates freight services to the following scheduled destinations (as of May 2024).

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

Controversies and military shipments to Israel

In May 2024, four Belgian NGOs (Amnesty International, the National Coordination for Action for Peace and Democracy, the Human Rights League and Vredesactie) published allegations that Challenge Airlines was transporting military arms from the United States to Israel, transiting through Liège Airport. The report cited ten flights that allegedly transited through Liège Airport between 7 November 2023 and 4 March 2024, each carrying several dozen tons of ammunition components for small arms, detonators, and parts for F-35 and F-16 fighter jets. This investigation prompted a decree from the Wallonian government to prohibit all transit of weapons - with or without transshipment - to Israel.

Challenge Airlines subsequently tried to appeal against the ban, and while it won the legal challenge, the prohibition on transits remained in place due to a subsequent Royal Decree from the Federal Minister of Mobility.

In April 2026, during Israel's war against Iran, Challenge Airlines was also named as being the carrier of two separate consignments that were being shipped from the United Kingdom to Israel via Belgium, in breach of the arms embargo. In this case the shipments comprised military aircraft components from the Wolverhampton factory of Moog Inc., the US weapons manufacturer, and fire control / laser targeting equipment from Elbit Systems. The shipments were seized by Belgian customs official at Bierset airport in Liège, and a criminal investigation initiated.