New Year’s Eve: Hard data from Ben Gurion Airport

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On the eve of the new civil year, alarming numbers are revealed regarding the state of aviation in Israel. In 2020, Ben-Gurion Airport moved from the “largest airports in the world” category to a level of activity similar to that we saw in Israel in 1992.
The data in the document reveal a 92% decrease in international passenger traffic at Ben Gurion Airport, of course due to the spread of the corona plague in the world and very strict measures taken in Israel in everything related to aviation and tourism. Before the outbreak of the crisis, more than 140 airlines operated at Ben Gurion Airport, today there are only about 60 and they have also significantly reduced the number of flights to Israel. Currently there are flights from Ben Gurion Airport to less than 100 destinations, when about a year ago the number was more Multiplication.
El Al - the airline active in the router
The countries that led the table of destinations during 2020 are: Turkey, USA, Greece, UAE, France and Ukraine. The leading airlines in Israel’s annual passenger traffic are: El Al with close to one million passengers, Turkish in second place with 319,000 passengers, United Airlines with 268,000 passengers, EasyJet with 259,000 passengers and Ryanair with 234,000 passengers this year.During the months of the crisis, Israir increased its activity and in analyzing the epidemic data, it enters fourth place in the list of active companies at Ben Gurion Airport.

Following the data revealed on the eve of the new civil year, the Airports Authority is reducing ancillary salary expenses for employees by hundreds of millions of shekels, about 220 employees have retired early and many more are expected to join them soon. About 3,500 employees were taken on unpaid leave, overtime was canceled for all employees, executive pay was cut by 25%, future projects were halted and development budgets were suspended and all travel abroad and courses were canceled, including the flight inspectors ‘course and the trainees’ unpaid leave.

Passenger traffic returned following peace agreement - but declined again due to restrictions // Photo: Gideon Markovich

Among the projects that have been frozen are the construction of infrastructure to increase the capacity of Ben Gurion Airport, upgrade and adapt the sorting and technological inspection systems to an advanced generation that will be suitable for increasing passenger traffic, adapting Terminal 1 to increase passenger traffic, establishing helicopter terminals at Ben Gurion Airport. More.

We missed 2019

In July and August 2019, more than 5.5 million passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport. On busy days, more than 100,000 passengers a day passed through Ben Gurion Airport, in about 700 daily aircraft movements. In June 2019, 2.1 million passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport on international flights, in June 2020, only 41,000 passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport, a decrease of 98%. In June 2019, there were 140 airlines operating 7,146 flights at Ben Gurion Airport, and in June 2020 only 16 airlines operating only 929 flights.

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