Ben Gurion International Airport
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Ben Gurion International Airport or Ben Gurion Airport, (named after David Ben-Gurion), located near Lod and once known as Lod Airport, is 15 km southeast of Tel Aviv, and is the largest international airport in Israel. The airport's IATA airport code is TLV, and its ICAO airport code is LLBG. It is operated by the Israeli Airports Authority. In Israel it is often referred by its Hebrew acronym: נתב"ג = נמל תעופה בן גוריון (and pronounced as "Natbag", with the 'a' vowel pronounced as in 'father').
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.
The new ultra-modern terminal, Terminal 3, was opened on November 2, 2004, and the first flight to take off from it was an El Al flight to New York City. Terminal 3 replaced the old Terminal 1 which was built during the days of The British Mandate over Palestine in the 1930's. Terminal 1 had extensions added to its original design but as years passed by there was a need for a new terminal. The new terminal is currently built for a capacity of 10 million passengers a year, and potentially could go up to 16 million passengers a year. It cost about 1 Billion US Dollars to build the new terminal and it's considered to be one of the largest single infrastructure projects in Israel in recent years. In the new terminal, there are passenger boarding bridges which allow passengers to step directly off the airplane into the terminal building without having to go down steps and take a bus to the terminal as was the case in Terminal 1. Starting in 2005, Terminal 1 is to handle domestic flights which are currently handled by Terminal 2.
With the opening of Terminal 3, a new train line opened a month earlier linking the new terminal to Tel Aviv and points North. An extension to this line will open in early 2006 and will allow direct rail connections to destinations south of the airport such as Be'er Sheva and Jerusalem as well.
The airport is also served by regular Egged intercity bus lines, a special air bus with express service to Tel Aviv, and Sherut shared door to door taxi lines. There is also a shuttle bus between terminals.
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, 26 people (including 2 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 20 Puerto Rican tourists who had just arrived in Israel.
Airlines flying to Ben-Gurion International Airport
- Adria Airways
- Aegean Cronus Airlines
- Aeris
- Aeroflot
- Air Adriatic
- Air Alfa
- Air Anatoylia
- Air Canada
- Air France
- Air Kazakhstan
- Air Sinai
- Air Slovakia
- Airzena Georgian Airlines
- Alitalia
- Arkia Israel Airlines
- AeroSweet
- Atlas International Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Azerbaijan Airlines
- Bulgaria Air
- Belavia
- BH Air
- Blue Panorama
- Bosphorus Airlines
- British Airways
- Bulgarian Air Charter
- Continental Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- Cyprus Airways
- CSA Czech Airlines
- Dalavia-Far East Airways
- Dutch Bird
- El Al
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Eurofly
- Finnair
- Fischer Air
- Free Bird Airlines
- Futura
- Helios Airlines
- Hemus Air
- Iberia
- Israir
- Jat Airways
- Kavmindvodyavia
- KLM
- Latpass Airlines
- Lithuanian Airlines
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- MALÉV Hungarian Airlines
- MNG Airlines
- Monarch Airlines
- Olympic Airlines
- Onurair
- Pulkovo Aviation
- Royal Jordanian
- Saratov Airlines
- Siberia Airlines
- Sky Airlines
- Spanair
- Sun D'Or
- Sun Express
- Swiss International Air Lines
- Tandem Aero
- Tarom Romanian
- Thai Airways
- Transaero
- Transavia
- Travel Service Budapest
- Travel Servis
- Turkish Airlines
- Ural Air
- Uzbekistan Air
External links
- Ben Gurion International Airport (http://www.iaa.gov.il/Rashat/en-US/Airports/BenGurion/)de:Ben-Gurion-Flughafen
he:נמל תעופה בן גוריון nl:Ben Gurion-luchthaven no:Ben Gurion Internasjonale Lufthavn ru:Аэропорт им. Давида Бен-Гуриона