Ben-Gurion International Airport is bracing for its busiest day in nearly two years, with more than 85,000 passengers expected to pass through its terminals today — the highest daily total since before the outbreak of war some 22 months ago, according to figures from the Airports Authority.

Roughly 43,700 travelers are scheduled to depart for destinations abroad, while another 42,000 are forecast to arrive in Israel by day’s end. The surge marks the busiest single day at the airport since the summer of 2023, when traffic had rebounded to pre-pandemic highs.

The growth comes amid a gradual recovery from last year’s slump in international travel. A 2024 Airports Authority report shows that in August 2023, 2.8 million international passengers moved through Ben-Gurion — nearly double the 1.5 million recorded in August 2024. Passenger numbers for July 2024 stood at 1.7 million.

Before the pandemic, Ben-Gurion regularly saw more than 100,000 passengers on peak summer days, with August 2019 setting a benchmark that has yet to be matched. Travel volumes plummeted in 2020 and remained depressed for two consecutive summers, before briefly recovering in 2023 and falling again in the wake of the ongoing conflict.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)