By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, March 2 (Reuters) - Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, said on its WhatsApp channel that it expects to reopen as early as Monday evening in an “extremely limited format” after the conflict with Iran shut Israeli airspace.
The airport said that starting on Tuesday, “flight operations will gradually expand depending on the security situation,” although only Israeli carriers are expected to resume flights.
Israel and the U.S. began bombing Iran on Saturday, triggering a wave of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East that have led to flight chaos, with hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide.
El Al Israel Airlines said on Monday it was seeking approval to operate charter flights from Europe to destinations bordering Israel to bring back passengers stuck abroad.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority estimates that nearly 300,000 Israelis have travelled abroad in the last three months and have not yet returned - 172,000 of them in the last month. Another 34,000 tourists are also currently in Israel.
The airline is considering flights to Taba in Egypt, which borders the Israeli Red Sea resort city of Eilat and Aqaba in Jordan, which is also adjacent to Eilat.
Israeli airlines have so far cancelled flights through Tuesday. Flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines said it has halted the sale of tickets until March 21 to allow its customers whose flights were cancelled to be accommodated as soon as the airspace opens.
Smaller rivals Arkia and Israir have suspended the sale of tickets until March 15 and March 18, respectively.
Arkia on Sunday began rescue flights and is operating flights between Athens, Rome, Larnaca and Sofia to Taba.
El Al said it was planning rescue flights from more than 20 cities, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Bangkok, London, Paris and other cities in Europe.
It added it was examining the possibility of operating flights using private airline KlasJet from European cities to Taba and Aqaba.
It said these flights were “subject to approval from the State of Israel and the security authorities.”
Israir said it was planning to start recovery flights to Taba starting on Tuesday from six European cities including Prague, Budapest and Sofia.
The Israeli Airports Authority said its Taba border crossing will be open 24 hours, while three crossings to and from Jordan will be open during day and evening hours.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
