Ben Gurion International Airport

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Template:Airport frame Template:Airport title Template:Airport infobox Template:Runway title Template:Runway Template:Runway Template:Runway Template:Airport end frame Ben Gurion International Airport or Ben Gurion Airport (Hebrew: נמל תעופה בן גוריון) Template:Airport codes, once widely known as Lod Airport, is located near Lod, 15 km southeast of Tel Aviv, and is the largest international airport in Israel. It is operated by the Israeli Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in the State of Israel. In Israel, it is often referred by its Hebrew acronym נתב"ג (pronounced "Nat-bug", with emphasis on the bug).

The airport, named after the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, is the hub of El Al Israel Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air.

In 2005 the airport handled about 8.5 million international and 410,000 domestic passengers.

Contents

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Terminals

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Terminal 1

Image:Airport Tel Aviv Bengurion.jpg Terminal 1 was built during the days of the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1930s. To accommodate growth, the original structure was expanded on several occasions until it reached capacity in the mid-1990's.

The departures check-in area was located on the ground floor. Passengers would proceed upstairs on an to the main departures hall which contained passport control, duty free shops, VIP lounges,one synagogue and boarding gates. At the gates, travellers would be required to descend a flight of stairs to return to the ground floor where the waiting buses would transport them to their airplane on the tarmac. The arrivals hall with passport control, luggage carousels, duty-free pick-up, and customs was on the south end of the building. Buses transferred passengers and crews to the terminal from the airplanes that parked on the tarmac over 500 metres away.

After Terminal 3 opened, Terminal 1 was closed except for government flights such as special immigrant flights from North America and Africa. It is expected that all domestic flights will eventually operate from Terminal 1 after a planned renovation is completed.

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Terminal 2

Terminal 2 currently serves domestic flights only. Due to increased traffic in the late 1990's and over-capacity reached at Terminal 1, an international section was added until Terminal 3 was opened. Terminal 2 is slated to become a museum once Terminal 1 is converted to domestic use. It is interesting to note though that Dov airfield, an airport located in Tel Aviv proper actually handles almost twice as many domestic passengers as Ben Gurion Airport does.

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Terminal 3

The new ultra-modern terminal, Terminal 3, was opened on November 2, 2004. The first inaugural flight to take off was an El Al flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Most of the terminal was designed by Black and Veatch, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) and Moshe Safdie, alongside with Ram Karmi and other Israeli architects.

Terminal 3 replaced the old Terminal 1 as the main international gateway to and from Israel. The new terminal is currently built for a capacity of 10 million passengers per year, and potentially could serve up to 16 million passengers a year with the addition of two concourses (out of a total design of five extending from the main structure, while three concourses have already been built). The construction project, known as Natbug 2000, had a planned inauguration prior to 2000 when a major influx of pilgrims was expected in the new millennium year. It was plagued with massive cost overruns and work stoppages for various reasons including the main Turkish contractor going bankrupt and eventually would cost an estimated one billion US dollars to build. The new terminal is considered to be one of the largest single infrastructure projects in Israel in recent years.

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Detailed description

Terminal 3 makes use of Jetways. The overall layout is similar to that found in airports in Europe and North America. Also typical of other large airports, when getting off the aircraft, there is a considerable distance to cross by foot to reach the landside terminal. However, the walk is assisted with moving walkways, as well as inclined escalators without steps for the downhill walk that leads passengers to passport control, luggage pickup and then out to the impressive hypostyle Arrivals Hall.

The terminal has multiple levels as well as multiple ground and elevated road entrances typical of many other large airports around the world. This include several multi-story parking facilities. The outside of the terminal building features attractive landscaping representing a sampling of the flora of the Land of Israel.

The departures hall includes luggage x-ray and over 100 check-in counters split into two levels. A shopping mall, named Buy & Bye, is open to the general public, travelers, escorts, or even casual visitors to the airfield. The area includes shops, restaurants, and a post office open 24 hours a day. On the same level as the mall, passengers enter passport control and the security check. Outside a distinctive tilted glass wall of this hall, one can watch airplanes taking off or landing. Through a portal in this wall, travellers proceed through the carry-on security check and then through a large long downhill hall to the star-shaped duty-free rotunda where many restaurants are located as well the a wide variety of duty-free shops. There are three concourses (B, C, and D), each leading to eight jetways (numbered 2 through 9). Each concourse also has two alternative bus bays (numbered 1 and 1A), where passengers bound for aircraft that could not be accommodated at one of the jetways board buses to the aircraft. Two additional concourses (A and E) will be built when passenger traffic warrants expansion.

Free wireless internet is provided throughout Terminal 3.

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Terminal 4

This Terminal was built in 1999 and was to have served as the gateway for the vast number of tourists exptected in Israel for the Millennium celebrations. The terminal was never actually opened for traffic and there is no need still to use it.

To this day the only use for the terminal has been for checking passengers from Asia during the SARS epidemic.

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VIP

On February 14, 2006, the Israeli Airports Authority (IAA) announced a 4.3 million NIS investment in creating a new exclusive VIP terminal for private jet passengers and crews, as well as other people who want to avoid the general public in the main terminal. The airport already offers VIP ground services through contractors, but a substantial increase in users justified expanding the section and increasing airport revenues. The IAA released figures showing significant growth in private jet flights (4059, 36.5% increase from 2004) as well as private jet users (14 613, 46.2% increase from 2004). The new VIP terminal will be operated through a licencee not related to the current VIP ground service companies already operating.

The new terminal will actually be a renovation and expansion of the current section of Terminal 1 that was used for private jet users. The new section will offer all the regular requirements of flying (security check, passport control, and customs) and include a new hall equipped for press conferences, a more luxurious lounge, special meeting rooms for hire equipped with business amenities, as well as several rooms for the convenience of flight crews who many times never leave the airport while waiting for their passenger(s) to return from a short business meeting.

Estimated cost to use the VIP section will be between US$50 and US$250 depending on services used.

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Ground transportation

About one month before the opening of Terminal 3 in November 2004, a new train route began operating, linking the new terminal to Tel Aviv (about a 15-minute ride), and points north. An extension of this line heading towards Lod will open in 2006 and will allow direct rail connections to points south of the airport such as Be'er Sheva, Jerusalem and Ashdod. This extension is the first phase of a new rail line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem with a spur to Modiin. Construction on this line is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The airport is also served by regular intercity bus lines, a special air bus with express service to Tel Aviv, Sherut "shared" door to door taxi lines, and private "special" taxis. An Egged #5 shuttle bus ferries passengers between the terminals and a mini bus terminal in the Airport City industrial park where they can connect to regular Egged bus routes passing through the area. Passengers connecting at Airport City can pay for both rides on the same ticket, not paying extra money for bus #5. Other bus companies directly serve Terminal 3. The airport also provides a free shuttle bus.

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Runways

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Main runway

The closest runway to terminals 1 and 3, and is followed by a taxiway. Most landings take place on this runway from West to East, approaching from the Mediterranean Sea over southern Tel Aviv.

Rarely, on difficult weather conditions, it also serves takeoffs. (direction 12, West to East)

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Short runway

In the past, mainly served cargo airplanes of the Israeli Air Force, and today serves mostly as a get-ready lane for the Quiet Runway.

Rarely, it is used for landing from North to South. (direction 21)

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Quiet runway

The longest runway in the airfield, and the main take off runway from East to West. (direction 26)

Referred to as "the quiet runway" since jets taking off in this direction produce less noise pollution for surrounding residents.

This is also the newest runway in the airport, built in the early 1970s.

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Historical events

Ben Gurion has long been a target of Palestinian terrorist groups, but due to extensive security measures, there has never been a hijacking of an aircraft that departed Ben Gurion airport. However, it has been the destination of other hijacked aircraft.

On May 8, 1972, Four Palestinian Black September terrorists hijacked a Sabena flight en-route from Vienna, and forced it to land at Ben Gurion airport. Israeli commandos stormed the plane, killed two of the hijackers and captured the other two. One passenger was killed.

On May 30, 1972, in an event known as the Lod Airport Massacre, 26 people (including two terrorists) were killed and 80 injured in an attack by the Japanese Red Army in the passenger arrival area. The victims included Aharon Katzir, a prominent protein biophysicist, and a group of twenty Puerto Rican tourists who had just arrived in Israel.

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Airlines flying to Ben-Gurion International Airport

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External links

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See also

he:נמל תעופה בן גוריון ja:ベン・グリオン国際空港 nl:Ben Gurion-luchthaven no:Ben Gurion Internasjonale Lufthavn ru:Аэропорт им. Давида Бен-Гуриона

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