Ben Gurion International Airport: Encyclopedia - Ben Gurion International Airport

Ben Gurion International Airport

34° 52' E

Ben Gurion International Airport or Ben Gurion Airport (IATA: TLV, ICAO: LLBG), 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 "Natbug", 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.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Terminals

Ben Gurion International Airport - Terminal 1

Terminal 1 was built during the days of the British Mandate over Palestine in the 1930s. To accommodate growth, terminal 1 had extensions added to its original structure, but as years passed there became need for a brand new terminal. The terminal had a check-in area in the main level. Passengers then headed upstairs to the departures hall which contained passport control, duty free shops, and boarding gates. At the boarding gates, people would go down steps which took them to the waiting buses that would take them to their airplane. Also on the first level there was an arrivals hall with passport control and luggage carousels that was served by buses that brought passengers and crews from their airplanes.

Terminal 1 is now closed and entry to it is restricted to airport personnel only. It is expected that eventually, all domestic flights will operate from Terminal 1 after it is converted for domestic usage.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Terminal 2

Terminal 2, which currently serves all domestic flights, will some day become a museum. Prior to the opening of Terminal 3, there was also an international section of Terminal 2 which handled some international flights, but this section is now closed.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Terminal 3

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. 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 new 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 project cost about 1 Billion US Dollars to build and the new terminal is considered to be one of the largest single infrastructure projects in Israel in recent years.

Terminal 3 makes use of passenger boarding bridges that allow passengers to step directly on and off jetliners from the airside terminal building (without having to use the service of a shuttle-bus to and from the jetliner, as the case in Terminal 1). The overall layout is much as in a typical North American airport. Also typical of other large airports, when getting off the jetliner, there is a considerable distance to cross by foot to reach the landside terminal. However, the walk is assisted with speedwalks/peoplemovers, as well as inclined escalators without steps for the downhill walk that leads passengers to passport control and 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 and a shopping mall named Buy & Bye, which is open to the general public, whether they are traveling abroad or only escorts to the airfield. Outside the tilted glass wall of this hall, one can watch airplanes taking off or landing. The area includes restaurants and shops with sitting corners. On the same level as the mall, passengers enter passport control and the security check. From there they proceed through a large long downhill hall to the star-shaped duty-free rotunda (where there are even more restaurants and shops), and from there to the boarding gates located at the concourses. There are about five boarding areas labeled with Latin letters spreading out in different directions from the rotunda. Each section has about ten gates to the airplanes.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Ground Transportation

With the grand opening of Terminal 3, a new train route started to operate a month earlier, linking the new terminal to Tel Aviv (some 15 minutes ride), and points North. An extension of this line heading towards Lod will open in early 2006 and will allow direct rail connections to points south of the airport such as Be'er Sheva, Jerusalem and Ashdod as well. This extension is also part of a brand new high speed rail line which is under construction from the airport to Jerusalem with a spur to Modiin that will open for service sometime towards the end of the decade.

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. There is also an Egged # 5 shuttle bus between the terminals and Airport City. At Airport City, passengers can connect to regular Egged bus routes. 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.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Runways

Ben Gurion International Airport - Main Runway

The closest runway to terminals 1 and 3, which 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)

Ben Gurion International Airport - 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)

Ben Gurion International Airport - 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 1970's.

Ben Gurion International Airport - 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 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.

Ben Gurion International Airport - Airlines flying to Ben-Gurion International Airport

• Adria Airways
• Aegean Cronus Airlines
• Aeris
• Aeroflot (Moscow Sheremetyevo)
• Air Adriatic
• Air Alfa
• Air Anatoylia
• Air Canada (Toronto)
• Air France (Paris/CDG)
• Air Kazakhstan
• Air Moldova (Chisinau)
• Air Slovakia (Bratislava)
• Georgian Airlines (Tbilisi)
• Alitalia (Milan/Malpensa, Rome/Fiumicino)
• Arkia Israel Airlines (Amman, Eilat, Johannesburg, Paris/CDG, Tashkent)
• AeroSweet
• Atlas International Airlines
• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
• Azerbaijan Airlines (Baku)
• Bulgaria Air (Bourgas, Sofia, Varna)
• Belavia (Minsk)
• BH Air
• Blue Panorama
• Bosphorus Airlines
• British Airways (London/Heathrow)
• Bulgarian Air Charter
• Continental Airlines (Newark)
• Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)
• CSA Czech Airlines (Prague)
• Dalavia-Far East Airways
• Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) Starts March 27, 2006
• Dutch Bird
• El Al (Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin/Tegel, Bucharest, Budapest, Cairo, Chicago/O'Hare, Dnipropetrovsk, Eilat, Frankfurt, Geneva, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Kiev, Larnaca, London/Heathrow, London/Stansted, Los Angeles, Madrid, Marseille, Miami, Milan/Malpensa, Minsk, Moscow/Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Newark, New York/JFK, Odessa, Paris/CDG, Prague, Rome/Fiumicino, St. Petersberg, Simferopol, Sofia, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Zurich)
• Ethiopian Airlines (Addis Ababa)
• Eurofly (Verona)
• Finnair
• Fischer Air
• Fly Air (Antalya)
• Free Bird Airlines
• Futura
• Helios Airlines
• Hemus Air
• Iberia (Barcelona, Madrid)
• Israir (Barcelona, Eilat, London/Stansted, New York/JFK, Paris/CDG, Rhodes)
• Jat Airways (Belgrade, Larnaca)
• Kavmindvodyavia
• KLM (Amsterdam)
• Latpass Airlines
• Lithuanian Airlines
• LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
• MALÉV Hungarian Airlines
• MNG Airlines
• Monarch Airlines
• Olympic Airlines (Athens)
• Onurair
• Pulkovo Aviation (St. Petersburg)
• Royal Jordanian (Amman)
• Saratov Airlines
• Siberia Airlines
• Sky Airlines
• SN Brussels (Brussels)
• South African Airways (Johannesburg)
• Spanair
• Sun D'Or
• Sun Express
• Swiss International Air Lines (Zurich)
• Tandem Aero
• Tarom Romanian (Bucharest)
• Transaero (Moscow Domodedovo)
• Transavia
• Travel Service Budapest (Budapest)
• Travel Servis
• Turkish Airlines (Istanbul)
• Ural Air
• Uzbekistan Air

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ben Gurion International Airport", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki