Ben Gurion Airport parking relief plan to start Sunday, but summer disruptions still feared

A plan to ease the parking shortage at Ben Gurion Airport is set to begin on Sunday, with the first stage removing about 20 aircraft from the field. The move comes as Israel’s main airport is struggling with a lack of parking stands for planes, a problem that has been weighing on Israeli carriers.

According to the report, there are currently about 68 aircraft parked at Ben Gurion, and industry sources say the immediate goal is to reduce that number sharply. They believe that if the airport is brought down to around 30 parked planes, summer operations could run more smoothly without forcing schedule cuts or ticket cancellations.

The next stage had originally been planned for July, but people familiar with the matter say efforts are under way to accelerate the process and remove more planes as early as possible before the heavy summer travel period. Transportation Minister Miri Regev is also pressing for a broader evacuation of aircraft and wants officials to examine removing any planes not needed for immediate airport operations, in order to free up as many parking positions as possible for Israeli airlines.

Even so, aviation officials warn that the problem is not fully solved. They say that unless at least 28 planes are removed from the airport, there is still a risk of parking shortages, which could disrupt the summer flight schedule and, in some cases, lead to flight cancellations.