Israeli airlines to increase flights to Tel Aviv this week

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, March 4 (Reuters) - Two of Israel's airlines said they would start to resume flights to Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv as the country's airspace is expected to gradually reopen later on Wednesday.

Israir ISRG.TA, one of Israel's two smaller carriers along with Arkia, said it planned five flights to Ben Gurion on Thursday from Rome, Berlin, Athens, Batumi and Rovaniemi/Lapland.

In the first phase of the reopening plan, just one passenger flight per hour will be permitted to land.

The airport would eventually open to two passenger flights per hour in a second phase, but Ben Gurion did not give a timeline.

Israel's airspace was closed on Saturday at the start of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which have triggered missile barrages from Iran against Israel, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded abroad.

Arkia will operate one flight from Rome on Thursday to Tel Aviv but five flights on Friday and six on Friday from Athens and Larnaca.

Both carriers are simultaneously operating multiple daily repatriation 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, from a host of European cities.

Flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines ELAL.TA has 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 to bring back an estimated 40,000 of its passengers stranded abroad. It has yet to issue a schedule.

Israel's airlines have halted ticket sales between March 15 and March 21 to allow customers whose flights were cancelled to be accommodated once the airspace opens.