Minister of Transport Miri Regev has announced that Israel’s airspace will reopen between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. This was decided after an assessment of the situation by the appropriate professionals, she said, although measures to increase activity are contingent on security developments.
According to travel industry estimates, over 100,000 Israelis are currently stranded abroad, awaiting repatriation to Israel. Regev said, "At this time, the airspace is still closed. I mentioned yesterday that I cannot reveal all the operations, but I have worked with neighboring countries and thousands of Israelis are returning through neighboring countries." She added that she had spoken with neighboring countries to enable the return of thousands of additional passengers through land crossings, and "I expect Israeli airlines to bring back the passengers of foreign airlines and not take advantage on fares."
Israel Airports Authority (IAA) chairman Yiftach Ron-Tal noted that Israelis are already starting to return through the land crossings and he added, "Within a week to 10 days we will be able to return all the Israelis who are stranded abroad," with capacity later being increased according to the situation on the ground.
IAA CEO Sharon Kedmi explained that the flight schedule will be restarted in a gradual manner, with one narrow-body aircraft operating per hour in the first 24 hours, landing with about 200 passengers, and two such aircraft or a wide-body aircraft operating in the second 24 hours, all with Home Front Command exemptions and in such a way to prevent crowding at Ben Gurion airport. In this way 5,000 passengers will be brought home in the first 24 hours.
Ministry of Transport director general Moshe Ben Zaken referred to failed attempts rescue stranded Israelis from Cyprus by boat but in the end the operators of the rescue voyages got cold feet"
At this stage rescue flights will only land at Ben Gurion Airport, and Haifa and Ramon airports will not be reopened. Until the airspace is opened, rescue flights will continue to operate through Taba and neighboring countries.
In addition, Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has added flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh in Sinai, at its own initiative, to increase supply and speed up the return of stranded Israelis.
El Al has already begun allocating passengers to rescue flights, while Israir will also begin operating rescue flights on Thursday.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 4, 2026.
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