TEL AVIV AIRPORT HUB
Ben Gurion closed 2025 at 19.2 million passengers (+31.8%), lost its sky in March 2026 — 203,256 passengers — and rebuilt to about 2.65 million a month by August; Terminal 1 is back, Wizz Air is based, and the full-year target is 22 million.
Twenty kilometres southeast of the centre, Ben Gurion is Israel’s only real international gateway: 19.16 million passengers in 2025 (18.5 million of them international), served by about 60 foreign airlines against roughly 80 before the war. El Al took a 36.2% share (6.93 million), Israir 11.9% and Arkia 11.2%, with Wizz Air the top foreign carrier at 6.6%; Israeli airlines together flew 58% of traffic. The busiest country markets were Greece (2.2 million), the United States (1.6 million) and the UAE (1.5 million) — flydubai kept the Dubai shuttle going near-uninterrupted, at up to ten flights a day. The airport train runs from Terminal 3 to Tel Aviv HaShalom in about 15 minutes.
March 2026 printed the floor: 203,256 passengers as the airspace closed for the Iran round. The sky reopened on April 9; May reached about 1.24 million, July 2.3 million (+25% year on year), and August roughly 2.65 million — about 100,000 passengers and 600 flights a day, near a 2019 summer pace. Terminal 1 reopened on June 28 for domestic flights and from July 1 for internationals; Wizz Air opened its Israel base in spring 2026, Delta resumed in September and American in October — while Ryanair has removed Tel Aviv entirely over the Terminal 1 fee dispute and easyJet remains suspended. Behind the recovery sits a ₪7.9 billion Airports Authority development plan, with the new-terminal construction permit issued in December 2025.
THE TIO READ
Fly the evening bank and take the train from Terminal 3 — 15 minutes to HaShalom, no taxi negotiation. For schedule resilience book El Al, Israir, Arkia or Wizz: the foreign flag carriers were the first to suspend and the last to return, and that pattern will repeat.
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