Tel Aviv airport reopens but airfares again skyrocket as foreign carriers stay away |
After 40 days of severe disruptions for travelers due to the war with Iran, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international gateway, is being fully reopened.
Israeli airlines are working at full speed to reinstate their regular schedules by increasing flight frequencies and seat sales, gearing up to meet bursting demand as Israelis eagerly plan vacations in the spring and peak summer months after a prolonged war period.
However, with foreign carriers not seen rushing back to resume takeoffs and landings as they await the outcome of the two-week truce with Iran announced Tuesday overnight, and with Israeli airlines struggling to fill the vacuum, vacationers who haven’t booked yet or had their previously planned flights canceled are again bracing for exorbitant airfares.
“The airfares of Israeli airlines are already skyrocketing because of expectations of strong travel demand in the coming weeks and especially during the summer months,” Yoni Waxman, deputy chairman of Ophir Tours, told The Times of Israel. “Prices are very high because of the low capacity of seats currently available for the upcoming period relative to the demand for bookings.”
Over the past two and a half years, as Israel has fought wars with the Hamas terror group, Iran, and foes on other fronts, travelers to and from Tel Aviv have grown used to expensive plane tickets due to foreign airlines repeatedly suspending flight services and leaving Israeli carriers with sparse competition.
“Now airfares will be even higher as the Iran war sent global oil prices and jet fuel costs soaring in recent weeks,” said Waxman.
When war broke out with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel’s airspace was shut to most commercial traffic, including foreign airlines.
Due to the imposed aviation restrictions, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa had to cancel their regular flight schedules and operate a sharply reduced emergency schedule, mainly to repatriate citizens stuck abroad and help travelers stranded inside the country leave. The restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport upended travel plans for tens of thousands of Israelis.
“Israelis are eager to go on vacation; they feel stifled after a prolonged period of war, and as the situation stabilizes, we expect demand to increase day by day,” said Shirley Cohen-Orkaby, vice president of Eshet Tours. “However, we are once again returning to a situation of high demand and limited supply.”
Over the course of the Iran war, most European airlines have continued to suspend all flight services to and from Israel through April and into May, while US carriers have pushed back their return to as far as September.
Hungarian low-cost airline giant Wizz Air extended the suspension of flights to and from Israel through April 27. In the weeks before the outbreak of war with Iran, the popular budget carrier had been preparing to establish an operational aviation hub in Israel as early as March or April, which could have boosted competition and was hoped to bring down high fares.
United Airlines recently extended the suspension of nonstop flights from New York to Ben Gurion Airport through at least September 7, and rival Delta cancelled services to Tel Aviv through September 5.
“From the morning of the announcement on the ceasefire, we have received a lot of requests for summer holiday bookings, especially by families, who want to take a break and travel to popular summer gateways such as Greek islands, Cyprus, and Eastern Europe, which are relatively cheaper than other destinations, but we still see a lot of demand for the US as well,” said Waxman.
Despite the truce, which halted nearly six weeks of constant Iranian ballistic missile attacks directed at Israel, foreign carriers are, for now, not likely to bring their resumption of flight services forward in the coming weeks, leaving Israeli travelers yet again largely dependent on local carriers.
Driven by pent-up demand, air tickets for flights to New York in August operated by Israeli carriers El Al and Arkia, which currently have a monopoly on the route, are now selling for more than $2,000, compared with less than $1,200 six months ago, according to Waxman. Flight tickets on the route had cost around $1,300 during the same period in 2025.
Currently, tickets for August travel to nearby Athens are priced around $600, and to London and Paris over $800, depending on the dates, Waxman said.
Foreign carriers are expected to stay away at least until the end of April, after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Thursday decided to extend an advisory cautioning airlines to avoid most Middle East and Gulf airspace, including Israel through April 24, citing regional hostilities and risks to civil aviation.
Major European carriers, including the Lufthansa group, as well as US carriers, are expected in the coming weeks to sit on the fence and wait and see whether the two-week truce with Iran turns into a permanent agreement and the skies over Israel remain quiet.
Waxman and Cohen-Orkaby both reckoned that if and when foreign airlines decide to restart their Tel Aviv routes, European carriers are likely to resume flights to Israel before their US counterparts.
“The return of foreign airlines will be gradual, and from past experience we know it does not happen all at once,” said Cohen-Arkaby. “While from Europe we may see a faster return of foreign carriers to Ben Gurion Airport, flights to the US will remain, in the coming weeks and even months, largely dominated by Israeli airlines.”
“We expect a gradual return starting at the end of April, with additional airlines resuming operations in May and even as late as September, such as United Airlines and Air Canada,” she added.
Even once the ceasefire with Iran holds firm and foreign airlines resume operations, it will take weeks if not months for airfares to stabilize, according to Waxman.
“Many of the foreign carriers have already allocated aircraft to different destinations, which means that once they make a decision, which in our experience takes at least 14 days, they need to rearrange the whole schedule to reassign aircraft and crews, and they usually don’t do it instantly,” he remarked.
With air travel prices from Tel Aviv to Europe and the US expected to remain high in the coming weeks, Israelis may find attractive fares flying to the Far East and other destinations via Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“The demand by Europeans will be lower as they will be more reluctant to use Dubai and Abu Dhabi as travel routes because they are more worried,” said Waxman. “There will be good options for Israelis flying to the US via Dubai, instead of taking a stopover somewhere in Europe.”
As has been the case in past security events, flydubai, Etihad Airways, and Emirates are expected to be among the first foreign carriers to resume operations to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.
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