Terminal 1 to Reopen at Month’s End as Summer Flight Disruptions Still Loom

Ben Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1 will reopen at the end of the month after Transportation Minister Miri Regev instructed the Airports Authority to restore operations ahead of the summer travel peak. The move is meant to expand passenger capacity, but the Airports Authority still warns that the crisis is not fully resolved and that hundreds of thousands of summer tickets remain at risk of cancellation because of a shortage of parking stands for aircraft, amid the presence of dozens of American planes at the airport.

In a statement released Wednesday, the authority said domestic flights from Terminal 1 will resume on June 28, and international flights will return there three days later, on July 1. It said the reopening is intended to handle the expected increase in passengers during the summer months and improve service at Ben Gurion Airport. Travelers were urged to check in advance which terminal their flight departs from and to follow updates from airlines and the authority’s official information channels.

The announcement came a day after the Airports Authority froze, at the last minute, a step that could have triggered mass cancellations of summer and High Holiday flights. A letter the state was supposed to send airlines on Tuesday, instructing them to prepare for cuts to flight schedules, was halted after progress was made in removing some of the American aircraft parked in Israel.

Separately, Arkia said at the Airlines Economics aviation conference that it had signed a lease agreement with AerCap for two Airbus A321 aircraft for eight years. The planes are expected to join the airline’s fleet in 2027, bringing its A321 total to nine and completing its transition to an all-Airbus fleet. The company said the aircraft, built in 2015, will undergo a major refurbishment before delivery, including a renewed cabin and a repaint in Arkia colors.