Approaches to increasing the productivity of benzophenanthridine alkaloids in suspension cultures in Escherichia californica were made in an airlift fermenter under different culture conditions. Elicitation with yeast extract elicitor reduced the time required to obtain a certain amount of alkaloid production. In a two-phase airlift fermenter with compounded silicone fluid, total alkaloid concentration in silicone fluid was 153.1 mg/L and that in the aqueous cellular phase was 8.2 mg/L at day 21 from inoculation. The large accumulation capacity of silicone fluid made it possible to store correspondingly large amounts of total alkaloid and increased the alkaloid production. At day 21 from inoculation, the volumetric alkaloid productivity and the net production in a two-phase airlift fermenter were 1.4 and 1.5 times higher than those of normal airlift fermenter operation. This performance was furthermore enhanced by elicitation. Elicitation in two-phase airlift fermenter operation increased the volumetric productivity and the net production 3.3- and 3.5-fold compared to those of normal airlift fermenter operation.