Just Before Passover, Ben-Gurion Freezes Planned Travel Easing After Escalated Fire from Iran

Just before Passover, and amid expectations of expanded options for leaving Israel, officials decided this morning (Thursday) to freeze the easing measures that had been planned for passengers at Ben-Gurion Airport. The decision followed a situation assessment at the Ministry of Transport, after fire toward Israel earlier today.

According to an N12 report, the easings, previously approved by Transportation Minister Miri Regev and intended to reduce congestion ahead of the holiday, will not take effect for now.

Under the planned changes, each wide-body flight was set to be allowed to board up to 50% of the aircraft’s capacity, meaning about 150 passengers. In addition, for narrow-body jets departing to European destinations, the cap was slated to expand to about 100 passengers per flight. These steps were meant to increase seat availability and ease the burden on travelers during an especially busy period.

The report also emphasized that Israeli airlines still are not operating a regular flight schedule and are continuing with special flights only. This is expected to lead to numerous cancellations and degraded service for passengers, despite the rise in people seeking to leave the country.