From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Ryanair suspends flights to Israel again, citing high costs at Ben Gurion airport
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Ryanair says it is suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv again.
The move comes just a month after the Irish low-cost carrier resumed its operations to Israel with a reduced schedule amid the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group.
Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers says it halted its operations to and from Israel as of February 27 as it was “forced by Ben Gurion International Airport to operate at the more expensive Terminal 3, which resulted in significantly higher costs and would have resulted in much higher airfares for Ryanair passengers traveling to and from Tel Aviv.”
The Israel Airports Authority closed Terminal 1, mainly used by charter and budget airlines, after the war broke out in the aftermath of the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught. As a result, inbound and outbound flight traffic from Ben Gurion International Airport is limited to the use of Terminal 3, which charges higher fees.
Major international airlines, including Ryanair, canceled all routes to Israel in the first week of the war. Ryanair resumed flights to and from Israel on February 1 with a reduced operating schedule, as other European carriers including Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian restarted their operations to the country.
“We call again on Ben Gurion International Airport to confirm a date when the lower cost Terminal 1 facility will be reopened, which will allow Ryanair to resume selling low-fare flights to and from Tel Aviv which have done so much to grow air travel and tourism for Israel,” says Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson.
