Ben Gurion International Airport is about to begin plans for expansion again, barely a decade after the opening of Terminal 3.
The country’s Open Skies policy increased air traffic exponentially in Israel, bringing passenger number 20,000,000 to the country earlier this month.
Travel traffic to the Jewish State is up 17 percent from 2016; next year the Transportation Ministry says at least 23 million passengers are expected to stream through Ben Gurion International Airport.
Construction will soon begin on Terminal 2 for domestic flights, to take the place of Tel Aviv’s Sde Dov airport, according to Globes.
Terminal 3 will expand with eight new entrances for aircraft in the coming weeks. There are plans to add 86 new check-in points and more self-service check-in machines. In addition, there will be six new hand baggage inspection systems as well.
Terminal 1 – reopened with a new duty-free area and other sparkling renovations – has been used over the past year for departures on low-cost airlines. By 2019 Israel expects more than three million passengers to be departing from that terminal alone, just about double the current traffic. The eventual plan is to also have low-cost arrivals coming through Terminal 1 as well.
