Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, said on its WhatsApp channel that it plans to reopen as early as Monday night in a “very limited form” after Israeli airspace was closed due to the conflict with Iran.
The airport said it would “gradually expand operations depending on the security situation” starting Tuesday, but only Israeli airlines are expected to resume operations. Israel and the United States began bombing Iran on Saturday, triggering a wave of retaliatory attacks across the Middle East and disrupting flights, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.
El Al Israel Airlines announced on Monday that it is seeking approval to operate charter flights from Europe to destinations bordering Israel to bring back passengers stranded abroad.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority estimates that nearly 300,000 Israelis have traveled abroad in the past three months and have not yet returned, of whom 172,000 have arrived in the last month. An additional 34,000 tourists are also currently in Israel.
The airline is considering flights to Israel’s Red Sea resort city of Eilat, neighboring Egypt’s Taba, and Jordan’s Aqaba, which also borders Eilat.
Israeli airlines have so far canceled flights through Tuesday. Flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines announced it would suspend ticket sales until March 21 to allow customers whose flights have been canceled to respond as soon as airspace is free.
Smaller rivals Archia and Israel have suspended ticket sales until March 15 and March 18, respectively.
Archia began its rescue flights on Sunday, operating flights from Athens, Rome, Larnaca and Sofia to Taba.
El Al said it was planning relief flights from more than 20 cities, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Bangkok, London, Paris and other European cities.
It added that it is considering the possibility of operating flights from European cities to Taba and Aqaba using private carrier Classjet.
These flights “require approval from the State of Israel and security authorities,” the company said.
Israel Airlines said it plans to begin recovery flights to Taba from Tuesday from six European cities, including Prague, Budapest and Sofia.
The Israel Airports Authority announced that the Taba border crossing will be open 24 hours a day, and the three border crossings with Jordan will be open day and night.
(Reporting by Stephen Scheer; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
