Carriers expand airlift to bring Israelis home; outbound flights set to begin Monday
Subject to approval by a government-led exceptions committee, diplomats, tourists, foreign youth and sports groups stranded in Israel will be able to return home from next week
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
El Al was slated to start operating repatriation flights on Friday from long-haul destinations, including New York and Bangkok, a day after launching an air mission to gradually bring back more than 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad since the start of the conflict with Iran on Friday.
Two flights from New York and one from Bangkok were expected to take off early Friday (Israel time) en route to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. Passengers assigned to these flights have been notified, El Al said.
On Wednesday, El Al, Arkia, and Israir began ferrying Israelis from Cyprus, Greece, Italy and other European destinations after they were stuck abroad due to the surprise closure of Israeli airspace six days earlier, as the military launched an offensive campaign against Iran. More than 100,000 Israelis were thought to have been abroad with no way to get back. Some 32,000 tourists and foreign passport holders, meanwhile, are currently stuck in Israel with few options to leave.
On Thursday, El Al operated a total of eight repatriation flights to bring back Israelis from Larnaca, Budapest, Athens, Milan, Rome, and England’s Luton airport. Israir launched two flights from Mykonos, Greece, arriving at Ben Gurion Airport. Arkia operated two flights from Larnaca and Athens. In total, about 2,700 Israelis are estimated to have arrived through Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday, according to the Transportation Ministry.
El Al said it plans to operate 14 repatriation flights to Israel on Friday from various destinations that have not yet been announced. Smaller local carrier Israir will return Israelis on six flights from Athens, Larnaca, Batumi, Budapest, Prague, and Palma de Mallorca. Arkia is planning to launch repatriation flights from Paris, Athens, Rome, Larnaca, Vienna, and Montenegro. Around 5,500 Israelis are estimated to return home on Friday, according to the Transportation Ministry.
“If the security situation allows, and we can continue to expand repatriation flights, we hope to bring back between 6,000 and 7,000 Israelis a day going forward,” said Transportation Minister Miri Regev.
Along with the repatriation flights, Israel is preparing to operate outgoing departure flights starting Monday to help tourists, diplomats and Israelis leave the country — subject to approval by a government-led exceptions committee, Regev announced.
Initially, the exceptions committee will give high priority to tourists, diplomats, foreign youth and sports groups, and those with urgent humanitarian and medical needs, who have been stranded in the country since the Iran conflict started on Friday.
“At the bottom line of the priority list will be Israelis who want to leave the country because they want to go on holidays, as our focus is first to bring back the 100,000 Israelis who are abroad,” says Regev. “The exceptions committee will also examine approvals subject to urgent humanitarian and medical needs of passengers.”
The exceptions committee established by the Transportation Ministry, which is designated to review and prioritize humanitarian and medical requests by Israeli citizens in need of quickly returning to the country, will also examine applications by tourists, diplomats, foreign youth and sports groups, asking to leave the country during the emergency period. Regev noted that Israeli airlines operating repatriation flights will allocate 15 percent of the seats to humanitarian and urgent medical cases approved by the exceptions committee.
The committee includes representatives of the Foreign Ministry, the Home Front Command and the National Emergency Authority.
Israel has until now not allowed foreigners or Israeli passengers to leave the country via air travel to avoid overcrowding and minimize the time planes spend on the ground at Ben Gurion Airport due to security reasons and Home Front Command guidelines. The international airport has been a frequent target of missile attacks.
The move comes after Tourism Ministry director-general Dani Shahar urged the government to allow tourists to leave the country by air, subject to approval by the exceptions committee. Some 8,000 foreign nationals are estimated to have found their way out of the country thus far, by land or sea, according to the Tourism Ministry.
In a letter sent on Thursday to Drorit Steinmetz, acting director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, Shahar called on the government to enable tourists stranded in Israel due to the Iran war to leave the country on empty outbound repatriation flights operated by local airlines.
“Tourists find themselves in a state of uncertainty and distress in light of a fierce war. Some stay here beyond their planned stay, sometimes in difficult financial and personal conditions, and report a sense of abandonment and loss of trust in state institutions,” Shahar wrote in the letter. “We request that return flights to Israel also be used for outbound flights of foreign tourists from Israel to their countries of origin, as is the case with cruise ships and land border crossings that are overwhelmed.”
“Prioritization is not only a humanitarian and necessary act, but also has great political and image value: those tourists will become ambassadors of goodwill for the State of Israel, or the opposite, if they are perceived as having been abandoned by the country they chose to visit,” the letter read.
On Tuesday, the Tourism Ministry launched a digital registration form for tourists stuck in Israel due to the war to facilitate their departure from the country once permitted. About 22,000 tourists have so far registered on the form and are seeking to get on departure flights to leave Israel, the ministry said.
Starting next week, and subject to authorization from state and aviation authorities, El Al is preparing to operate repatriation flights from major destinations in the US and Europe.
European destinations from which flights are expected to depart include London, Paris, Larnaca, Athens and Rome. From the US, El Al hopes to operate repatriation flights from New York and Los Angeles, and in the Far East, from Bangkok.
El Al said its customers will be asked Thursday to update their requested repatriation location, if they choose to change it, via an email that will be sent to them.
El Al, which in normal times does not fly on Shabbat, will operate medical emergency repatriation flights this coming Saturday to bring back Israelis after receiving necessary approvals from Israel’s chief rabbis.
“In light of numerous cases of pikuah nefesh, or life and death medical life-saving cases that require immediate arrival of passengers to Israel, El Al has decided to operate special flights during this upcoming Shabbat,” the airline said. “These flights will be defined as pikuah nefesh or medical emergency flights.”
Following the approval by Israel’s chief rabbis, El Al plans to operate three flights on Saturday, departing for Israel from Larnaca, Cyprus, and Athens, Greece.
Jewish law allows breaking Shabbat in matters of life and death, a concept that is at times interpreted broadly.
Earlier this week, Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef ruled that there is no immediate threat to those who are stranded and therefore there were no grounds for breaking Shabbat to allow the operation of El Al flights.
Arkia and Israir are expected to operate repatriation flights from nearby destinations on Saturday.
“If El Al will not fly on Saturdays, we will give the slots to other Israeli airlines so they can operate more flights,” said Regev.
The Times of Israel Community.