Dozens of aircraft parking stands are expected to be vacated at Ben Gurion Airport in the coming days, after it was decided to transfer some of the aircraft parked at the field to Air Force bases. The move comes after Transportation Minister Miri Regev sent an urgent letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which she warned of an acute parking shortage at Ben Gurion Airport. In her letter, she warned that without an immediate solution, there could be a severe shortage of parking stands for aircraft ahead of the peak summer season and the Tishrei holidays — a situation that could affect more than 2.4 million scheduled flight tickets.
Following the appeal, the Prime Minister instructed the head of the National Security Council to formulate an immediate solution to the issue. In accordance with the outline that was formulated, and as first reported by Channel 14, in the coming days approximately 20 aircraft will be transferred from Ben Gurion Airport to Air Force bases, and in a further phase, towards July, approximately 17 additional parking stands are expected to be vacated.
Photo: Avshalom Sassouni, Flash 90
The move is expected to provide a significant response to the parking shortage at the airport and allow Israeli airlines to continue operating their scheduled flights for the summer season, without the need for extensive cancellation of flights.
At the same time, estimates are that the American planes currently parked at Ben Gurion Airport are also expected to leave Israel following the agreement signed between the United States and Iran. If the move is indeed implemented, it is expected to further ease parking congestion at the airport and help increase the supply of parking stands during the busy period of the year.