El Al's UP low cost airline
Photo: AFP
Ben-Gurion Airport's Terminal 1 to resume full operations in 2017
The terminal, used by both international and Israeli low cost airlines, will start operating nine gates, a duty free area and a food court starting next summer, after seeing only partial use over the past 12 years.
Starting next summer, Ben-Gurion International Airport's Terminal 1 will resume full operations.
After the new Terminal 3 was opened in 2004, Terminal 1 has been used initially only for domestic flights and later for check-in, border control and security for international flights, but passengers then had to wait for a bus to transport them to Terminal 3, where they could board the plane.
But in the summer of 2017, passengers could board flights at Terminal 1 itself and even shop at duty free stores.
Terminal 1 (Photo: Yaron Brener)
The terminal will be able to perform its own luggage security checks, while its passengers security area will be expanded and biometric passports will be introduced.
Nine gates, an airport lounge and a food court will all also be opened at the terminal.
The Israel Airport Authority (IAA) decided to reopen the terminal for flights in light of the sharp increase in international low cost airlines making use of the terminal and their request to make travel more pleasant for their passengers.
Since Terminal 1 was reopened for international flights, the number of passengers going through it increased from 93,000 to over a million passengers over the last year.
Every week, some 70 international flights leave from Terminal 1 by airlines like easyJet, Wizz Air, El Al's low cost airline UP, Norwegian, Israir and Arkia.
