Ryanair will resume flights to Tel Aviv on June 1 from seven European cities after Ben Gurion International Airport announced that it would reopen its low-cost Terminal 1 on the same date.
The budget carrier quickly suspended flights to Tel Aviv following the October 7 terror atrocity and initially stayed out of Israel for nearly five months.
As other European airlines started to resume services to Tel Aviv earlier this year, led by German flag carrier Lufthansa on January 7, Ryanair also decided to restart a small number of services to Israel’s most populous city on February 7.
That resumption was, however, shortlived, and Ryanair decided to ground flights to Israel just 27 days later. The reason wasn’t due to security concerns but rather the cost of operating flights to Ben Gurion Airport.
As most international pulled services to Israel last October, the airport authority decided to temporarily shutter Terminal 1 which is used by budget carriers. Airlines had to use Terminal 3, but utilising this terminal attracts “significantly higher” passenger charges.
Ryanair had asked Ben Gurion Airport to match the same passenger charges that it normally pays for using Terminal 1, and when the airport authority refused, Ryanair decided to pull flights.
At the time, Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair’s mainline airline, slammed Ben Gurion Airport’s “refusal to reopen the low-cost Terminal 1” or, at the very least, reduce the passenger charges for using Terminal 3.
Last week, however, the airport said it would now reopen Terminal 1 as it expects surge in passenger demand over the summer months following the Passover holiday.
Ryanair will initially operate 40 flights to and from Tel Aviv from Athens, Bari, Berlin, Budapest, Malta, Milan and Paphos.
