Ben Gurion Airport in difficulty due to influx of travelers

A total of 1.2 million passengers passed through Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport in March, as Israel's tourism industry rapidly recovers from the Covid pandemic. 

According to forecasts, 1.5 million passengers are expected to pass through the Israeli airport in April, including 70,000 to 75,000 per day during the Passover holiday.

But the long queues seem to be getting longer every day. 

This can be explained by several reasons: the lack of manpower, the explosion in demand over a very short period, the reduction in the number of counters to install PCR test stations, and the low use of technologies such as online check-in.

Ben Gurion Airport manager Shmuel Zakai told Globes that the Covid crisis led to the current situation. 

"Passengers have to present more documents as required by the country of destination, which lengthens the procedures," he said.

"The fact that passengers have to go to check-in counters is a problem that airlines can solve." 

On Ryanair flights this week, 50 percent of passengers lined up at the hand baggage counter. Before Covid, they didn't need to queue at this location as they could check in online. 

However, airlines prefer to be cautious because if a passenger lands in a country without the required entry documents (the Covid screening test for example), the airline is responsible for their return to the country.

According to Zakai, "99 percent of passengers check ahead of time the terms of entry to the country that they are flying to and if they know that the country requires antigen test before the flight they come ready. The airport has a W track for passengers taking off without baggage. El Al for example checks the required documents there."

“But there are airlines that for reason of costs prefer that the passengers come to their counters. I spoke to the airlines this week and I begged them to manage the risk and renew check-in over the internet. Ultimately the number of passengers who don't follow instructions is meager. But in order to fish them out they make tens of thousands stand in line. There are 6-7 flights a day to some destinations and they just send back one passenger," he added.

Israel is also one of the few countries that continues to subject all people entering the country to PCR tests at Ben Gurion Airport.

Thus, 45 airline counters have been converted into PCR test stations. For people leaving the country and needing to undergo a PCR test, part of Terminal 1 has been set aside for this purpose.