Israeli airline Arkia announced Friday that its long-haul flights to New York, Bangkok and Hanoi will take off from Ben Gurion Airport instead of Jordan’s Aqaba Airport starting Sunday.
Due to the Transportation Ministry’s wartime restrictions that cap outgoing flights at 50 passengers, the decision will lead to the cancellation of tickets for thousands of Israelis ahead of the Passover festival.
The announcement came a few days after the airline announced it would be transferring the vast majority of its outgoing flights from Israel to Aqaba and Egypt’s Taba airport due to the strict rules.
Both airports are located near Israel’s land border crossings with Egypt and Jordan, where thousands of Israelis were seen gathering in long queues in the days leading up to Passover.
While Arkia’s long-haul flights across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will depart from Israel, flights to nearby countries — among them Italy, Greece, France and Austria — will still take off from Egypt and Jordan.
Planes departing from Israel will carry up to 50 people, but return flights will operate at full capacity, in accordance with the Transportation Ministry’s rules.
Transportation Minister Miri Regev requested that Arkia operate additional flights from Bangkok to Tel Aviv over the course of next week, including the start of Passover, according to the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom. These flights will be at full capacity.
Arkia CEO Oz Berlovitz said in a statement that the airline is “working around the clock to increase the frequency of flights and allow the Israeli public to leave and return to the country during the holiday period.”
“I would like to apologize personally to the thousands of customers who were forced to change or cancel their flights. This is a challenging period, and we are doing everything we can to find alternative solutions and to provide the best service to everyone,” his statement continued.
Israel’s airspace has been shut to most commercial traffic since February 28, when Israel launched joint attacks with the US on the Iranian regime.
Earlier in March, Ben Gurion Airport gradually reopened for limited inbound and outbound flights, operated solely by Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa, to repatriate over 100,000 stranded abroad.
Israel began to tighten passenger quota restrictions on outbound flights after three private jets parked at Ben Gurion Airport were damaged by debris following the interception of an Iranian ballistic missile.
In addition to lowering the number of passengers permitted on an outbound flight from 120 to 50, the Transportation Ministry also limited the number of takeoffs and landings at Ben Gurion Airport to one per hour, instead of the two previously allowed.
