RESPONDING to a ban on commercial airline operations at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport issued earlier this week by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Israel has opened Ovda Airport to international commercial flights instead.
Transportation minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday that foreign airlines have a choice of landing at Ovda, a military airfield that currently also serves civilian flights to popular resort destination Eilat.
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Israel’s Haaretz Newspaper, reported as of late last night that none of the airlines operating at Ben Gurion has decided to take up the offer.
However, the news site noted that Ovda has limited ability for civilian flights and is “usually not prepared” for wide-body aircraft landings. Additional manpower such as flight controllers, emergency firefighting and rescue crews is also required.
In the meantime, the FAA lifted its ban on flights to Israel late on Wednesday night after first extending the ban from originally 24 hours to 48. The US aviation agency issued the order after a rocket landed within a mile of Ben Gurion on Tuesday.
ABC News stated earlier that dozens of flights and hundreds of passengers were affected as international airlines including Air Canada, Lufthansa and Air France chose to follow the FAA’s guidelines. US-based carriers like US Airways, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines had already cancelled flights.
Said FAA in its latest statement: “Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its US government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation.
“The FAA’s primary mission and interest are the protection of people traveling on US airlines. The agency will continue to closely monitor the very fluid situation around Ben Gurion airport and will take additional actions, as necessary.”
Separately, the European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday also “strongly” recommended that airlines refrain from flying to Ben Gurion airport. Air France has suspended flights “until further notice” and Lufthansa has cancelled Thursday flights.
*This article has been updated as the FAA lifted the ban on flights to Israel on Thursday afternoon, Singapore time.
