The head of the civil aviation authority calls for the removal of military aircraft from Ben Gurion Airport

The head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakai, appealed to Transport Minister Miri Regev and the ministry’s director general Moshe Ben-Zaken to remove US military aircraft from Ben Gurion Airport.

“The defense department underestimates the scale of damage to civil aviation and the impact of the number of flights on prices and on all citizens of the country. Security forces do not allow the Ministry of Transport to fulfill its functions and responsibilities. In the current situation, the State of Israel actually does not have an international airport capable of operating normally. Ben-Gurion has become a military airfield with limited civilian activity,” the letter says.

According to Zakai, their presence at the country’s main air gates seriously disrupts the operations of Israeli airlines, prevents the return of foreign air carriers and disrupts the entire industry.

Thus, Israair CEO Uri Sirkis told a meeting of the Knesset Economic Committee that the company, which usually has 17 aircraft at Ben-Gurion, is now receiving permission to park only four, which not only increases the cost of flights, but also limits the number of flights that Israeli carriers can operate.

By Editor