Thursday will mark the busiest day this summer at Ben Gurion Airport, with approximately 78,000 passengers expected to pass through on about 470 international flights, according to the Israel Airports Authority. Popular destinations include Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Italy.
The surge surpasses the airport’s busiest day since Operation Rising Lion began in June and positions August 2025 as the busiest month since the onset of the war in Gaza in October 2023, with an estimated 2.1 million international passengers.
Air Seychelles will resume direct flights to Mahe on Thursday, while Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air will restart operations in Israel on Friday, initially resuming routes to Budapest and Larnaca. Flights to London will resume on August 22, followed by Vienna, Sofia, Rome, Milan and Bucharest on September 1 and September 2, and Iași on September 4.
Other routes, including Athens, Crete, Rhodes, Krakow, Warsaw, Vilnius and Varna, will restart on September 15, with Cluj-Napoca and Naples following on October 27 and 28, respectively.
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To manage the summer travel boom, the Israel Airports Authority reopened Terminal 1 for both international and domestic flights, currently serving El Al, Arkia and Israir, with Wizz Air and other airlines expected to join. Approximately 140,000 passengers are projected to use Terminal 1 in August across 800 flights.
Terminal 3 introduced a new check-in area, Zone G, on the ground floor with 26 counters. Additionally, a dedicated lounge for passengers with special needs opened in Terminal 3, consolidating assistance services from all airlines into a single hub, offering support from security checks to baggage handling.
The Airports Authority added the new lounge ensures seamless assistance for passengers with special needs, highlighting efforts to enhance accessibility amid record travel demand.