Ryanair suspends Tel Aviv flights over airport dispute

Until the airport confirms Ryanair’s summer slots and guarantees the future availability of Terminal 1, the carrier said, it will not return to Tel Aviv.

By JNS

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passengers, announced on Tuesday that it will not restart its low-fare services to and from Tel Aviv this winter, citing Ben-Gurion International Airport’s refusal to confirm its flight slots for the summer 2026 schedule or guarantee continued access to the airport’s low-cost Terminal 1.

The decision represents the loss of 1 million seats and 22 routes, Ryanair said in a statement.

The low-cost airline said its operations at Ben-Gurion have been “repeatedly disrupted” this past summer, as Israeli authorities closed Terminal 1 three times due to security concerns, forcing the airline into Terminal 3.

According to Ryanair, moving to the higher-cost terminal rendered previously sold low-fare tickets “loss-making.”

A Ryanair spokesperson criticized the airport’s stance: “We are fed up having our low-fare flights repeatedly messed around by Ben-Gurion Airport. It is absurd that they refused to confirm our summer 2026 slots when summer 2026 schedules are already on sale.”

The airline added that while it is willing to temporarily relocate flights to Terminal 3 during emergencies, it expects those services to continue at Terminal 1 rates.

“It is also unacceptable to Ryanair and our low-fare, price-sensitive passengers that our growth at Tel Aviv Airport is dependent upon the availability of the low-cost T1 facility,” the spokesperson said.

Until the airport confirms Ryanair’s summer slots and guarantees the future availability of Terminal 1, the carrier said, it will not return to Tel Aviv.

“We regret this means that Tel Aviv will no longer have access to Ryanair’s much lower fares, or to the 22 routes we operated last winter,” the airline stated.

Ryanair warned earlier this month that it might take such action. The airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said: “I think there is a real possibility that we won’t bother going back to Israel … when the current violence recedes.”

He told journalists in Dublin that “unless the Israelis kind of get their act together and stop messing us around, frankly, we have far more growth elsewhere in Europe.”