Ben Gurion Airport sees record number of passengers
Despite recession, Israeli central terminal breaks record of previous peak year with almost 8% rise in passenger traffic on first week of August
The first week of August has broken all previous records at the Ben Gurion Airport and saw a 7.95% rise in passenger traffic and 6.06% rise in aircraft movement compared to the same period last year, which has been the peak year in passenger traffic until now.
The peak day of 2009 is expected to be Thursday, August 27, on which more than 56,000 passengers and 340 airplanes are scheduled to go through the terminal.
Some 5,865,300 people have been through Ben Gurion since the beginning of the year.
The Israel Airports Authority has called on passengers to check for changes in arrivals and departures before leaving for the terminal, and arrive at the terminal 3.5 hours before the time of their flight.
The busiest hours at the airport are usually 5 am-8 am, when most flights to Western Europe take off. The afternoon hours, between 3 pm-5 pm are also considered very crowded.
