Ben Gurion International Airport: Encyclopedia II - Ben Gurion International Airport - Terminals

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 (moving walkways), 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 in the concourses. There are three concourses (B, C, and D), and each concourse has eight jetways (numbered 2 through 9). Each concourse also has two 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.

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