Navigate to News section

That Story About El Al Attendants Is Fake

Israeli airline may have the world’s hottest—but not officially

by
Marc Tracy
July 11, 2012
Former El Al flight attendant Sara Netanyahu.(Avi OhayonAFP/Getty Images)
Former El Al flight attendant Sara Netanyahu.(Avi OhayonAFP/Getty Images)

I saw, via a tweet from Israel’s Chicago consulate, that the World Air Hostesses Association had named El Al’s the “most attractive flight attendants” in the world. Judging from two flights on the Israeli airline last month, it didn’t seem the most implausible fact, but I like to verify. Subsequent Googling reveals that the Association is not a thing, and that the story is somewhat bogus and probably completely bogus. The “news” was broken by a website called Tourist Israel, which cited a source in the “Chinese media” (maybe this blog post?). At least one other blog has also found the evidence wanting.

Still, we can safely go out on a limb and propose that El Al has the world’s highest percentage of Jewish flight attendants, right? And, for a certain sort of discerning customer, that’s more important anyway.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.