El Al Israel Airlines has launched a new start-up support program called "Cockpit" to support Israeli startups working on innovations in aviation and travel.

The aim of the program is to expose the carrier to new technologies in its areas of endeavor and it plans hosting ten start-ups and providing them with tens of millions of dollars in investment funds and other benefits.

They plan on helping ten new companies with tens of millions of dollars in seed capital, and also mentoring them with experienced El Al professionals. The chosen startups will have access to El Al’s extensive domestic and international business connections network and will get a chance to try out their new technology on El Al’s beta website.

The program will operate in collaboration with the Microsoft Israel Accelerator so that Cockpit participants will also benefit from Microsoft’s benefits and guidance.

El Al's Cockpit program has already selected its first two participants. Shopnfly allows travelers to search for and implement duty-free price comparisons and purchase a range of goods at every stage of their journey and collect the products they have ordered at airport stores, on the plane or at the hotel they are staying at.

 The second start-up is BidFlyer, which is an advanced public sales platform, which can be integrated into an airlines systems and provide a new channel for ticket sales at attractive prices.