Ben Gurion International Airport

Ben Gurion International is Israel's principal airport and handles over 98% of the country's international passenger traffic — a concentration unmatched by any airport in a comparably-sized economy. The facility served 24.9M passengers (2023) before regional conflict reshaped operations in 2024; across 72 airlines on 307 scheduled routes it connects 124 destinations, with European traffic representing roughly 60% of seat capacity and North American long-haul the fastest-growing segment. El Al operates its sole hub at TLV, joined by low-cost affiliates Arkia and Israir. The airport is the largest non-European station for Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, and Wizz Air, and the primary Middle East gateway for United, Delta, and American — each of whom operate daily widebody service from New York, Newark, and multiple U.S. hubs. Security architecture is the airport's defining operational feature: a multi-ring perimeter, behavior-based passenger screening that begins at vehicle entry, and a layered airside that no other major civilian airport replicates at comparable scale. Three runways handle movements: primary 08/26 at 13,327 ft (4,062 m) — among the longest in the Mediterranean basin — plus 12/30 at 10,209 ft (3,112 m) and 03/21 at 9,094 ft (2,772 m). Terminal 3, opened 2004 with a Moshe Safdie design, handles all international traffic through a central rotunda fed by two long piers; Terminal 1 (the original 1930s building extensively rebuilt) handles domestic and some low-cost Schengen operations. A €1.5B Terminal 3 eastern expansion approved in 2022 will add 20 widebody gates and a dedicated connecting-passenger pier by 2028. Elevation is 135 ft (41 m); the airport occupies 3,420 acres (1,384 ha) near Lod, 20 km southeast of central Tel Aviv.