An El Al plane at Ben Gurion International Airport. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Israel’s national carrier announces it will carry out emergency wartime flights to return Israelis stranded abroad, even as Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles.
By World Israel News Staff
Israel will be resuming civilian operations at Ben Gurion International Airport in order to facilitate wartime emergency evacuation flights, Israel’s national air carrier announced Monday morning.
El Al said that it is working to organize emergency flights to Israel from locations around the world in order to enable the return of Israeli travelers stranded abroad at the time of the outbreak of the war over the weekend.
The flights will commence “as soon as Ben Gurion Airport reopens for operations,” El Al said in a statement.
The first stage of the operation will include flights from 22 locations in Europe, North America, and Asia.
The rescue flights from the US will include departures from the New York Area, Miami, and Los Angeles.
El Al will operate out of two cities in Thailand – Bangkok and Phuket – along with 17 European cities, including Larnaca, Athens, Rome, Milan, Paris, Budapest, Tbilisi, Sofia, Warsaw, Bucharest, Madrid, London, Barcelona, Geneva, Amsterdam, Munich, and Zurich.
The flights will be free of charge to customers of El Al and Sun d’Or who were unable to use their return tickets due to the war.
Once all El Al and Sun d’Or customers have been returned to Israel, tickets for the El Al flights will be opened up for sale to the general public.
El Al is also considering operating charter flights via KlasJet, a Lithuanian airline, to Egyptian and Jordanian border cities, enabling travelers to cross into Israel by land.
The flights are being considered for Taba, in the Egyptian Sinai, and Aqaba in Jordan. Both cities are just outside of the Israeli city of Eilat.
“These flights would operate from nearby destinations in Europe and would be offered at no additional cost for El Al and Sun d’Or customers who wish to use them,” El Al said.
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