After 40 days of near-total shutdown, Ben Gurion Airport is back open. But anyone hoping for relief at the ticket counter will be disappointed.
Israel’s Transportation Ministry announced that the country’s airspace will fully reopen and regular operations at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport will resume starting midnight Wednesday-Thursday, roughly one day after the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran was announced. The ministry said it is coordinating with the Israel Airports Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority to restore full terminal operations, including Duty-Free shops and all passenger services.
But most foreign airlines are not coming back anytime soon.
Israel’s flag carrier El Al, along with domestic carriers Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa, are scrambling to expand flight frequencies and seat capacity to meet what industry insiders describe as explosive demand. Israeli travelers, cooped up through nearly six weeks of Iranian ballistic missile attacks, are flooding airline websites looking to book. But the math is brutal. Supply is thin, demand is surging, and prices are punishing.
“The airfares of Israeli airlines are already skyrocketing because of expectations of strong travel demand in the coming weeks and especially during the summer months,” said Yoni Waxman, deputy chairman of Ophir Tours. “Prices are very high because of the low capacity of seats currently available for the upcoming period relative to the demand for bookings.”
Tickets from Tel Aviv to New York on El Al or Arkia — which currently hold a monopoly on the route — are selling for more than $2,000, compared with under $1,200 six months ago. Flights to Athens are running around $600, while London and Paris are topping $800, depending on dates.
The situation is further complicated by jet fuel costs. “Now airfares will be even higher as the Iran war sent global oil prices and jet fuel costs soaring in recent weeks,” Waxman said. Reuters reported that jet fuel prices have more than doubled since the conflict began, with the International Air Transport Association warning that supply disruptions from damaged Middle Eastern refining infrastructure could persist for months.
Major North American carriers — Delta, United, and Air Canada — have canceled Tel Aviv flights through September. British Airways has suspended service through July 1. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency extended its directive Thursday warning airlines away from Middle Eastern and Gulf airspace through April 24, giving European carriers an official reason to stay grounded. Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air, which had been on track to establish an operational hub in Israel before the war disrupted those plans, extended its cancellations only through April 27 — a relative bright spot.
Emirates, Etihad, and flydubai have already submitted inquiries about resuming Tel Aviv routes and securing landing slots, and past experience places Gulf carriers among the first to return after Israeli security events. However, an industry source noted a significant operational constraint: a current ban on eastward landings at Ben Gurion — maintained partly to keep airspace clear for emergencies — forces Gulf carriers onto lengthy detour routes via Egypt and the Nicosia air corridor, making operations costly and sometimes unworkable.
Dr. Uzi Freund-Feinstein, an aviation expert and senior faculty member at Kinneret Academic College’s Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, warned that some carriers may never come back. “Certain airlines may decide that Israel is too high-risk a market and forgo resuming operations altogether. We have seen this with Ryanair and easyJet, which exited the Israeli market despite its importance to them for many years.”
Airlines must wait for regulatory clearance from EASA or the FAA, secure approval from aircraft leasing companies to operate in the region, negotiate reduced insurance rates, and persuade flight crews to staff the routes. “Once airlines are permitted to operate in Israel and assess that the new situation provides sufficient certainty, they will need to decide whether they have the resources — crews and aircraft — to resume operations here,” Freund-Feinstein said. “As time passes, airlines finalize their schedules, and their ability to return to the Israeli market diminishes.”
Flight operations will also resume at Herzliya Airport on Thursday morning, and Eilat’s Ramon Airport will restart on Sunday. The Transportation Ministry said resumption at Haifa Airport in the north will be evaluated later in the week, contingent on the security situation — Israel has been explicit that the Iran ceasefire does not apply to Lebanon.
Shirley Cohen-Orkaby, vice president of Eshet Tours, put it plainly: “Israelis very much want to go on vacation. They feel pent up after a long period of war, and as the situation stabilizes we will see demand increase daily. However, we are once again facing high demand and low supply.”
