The chaos at Ben Gurion Airport will only get worse:
August 7 - this is the date that the teams at Ben Gurion Airport are preparing for.
The end of a period between the Egyptians, combined with the period after the summer camps, are the days when the number of flights to and from Israel is expected to jump.
The queues at Ben Gurion Airport are getting longer, the passengers' patience is running out, and many of them have to wait three hours or more until they get to the plane.
Today, there are 80,000-70,000 passengers passing through the airport a day, and in talks with senior airport officials they warn that the situation is only getting worse.
"In August the numbers will be bigger, there are now people who do not fly because of a period between the Egyptians, and if you thought the queues are long now - wait until August," says an airport source.
Due to the situation, many flights are delayed, even though the plane and crew are ready to receive passengers long before the original departure date.
Lost suitcases at Ben Gurion Airport (archive), Photo: Alan Shiver
Unused solution
One of the significant reasons for this is that the passengers do not have enough time to go through the process even before the original take-off date, and the plane has to wait for them on the ground.
Ben Gurion Airport also intends to open Compound G on the first floor, where they will check in for some of the flights, thus hoping to reduce the heavy loads expected in August.
Lost suitcases at Ben Gurion Airport (archive), Photo: Alan Shiver
In conversations with airport officials, they present us with a solution that could have significantly reduced congestion at Ben Gurion Airport, but most airlines choose not to use it.
On August 1, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus will also join, so passengers on these companies' flights will be able to send their luggage from Ben Gurion Airport or Haifa and soon from Tel Aviv, the day before the flight, one representative for the whole family. "We really want to expand this service, and all airlines have been invited to operate it, but most choose not to, due to a shortage of manpower. This service could have saved a lot of time for everyone if they had used it properly."
Money does not shorten queues
Until recently, those who were willing to pay hundreds to thousands of shekels for VIP services could do so.
Today, even those who are willing to part with considerable sums of money, can no longer really find places in any of the companies for most of the dates in July and August and also on some days in September.
In conversations with employees of the ground service companies that provide the shortening service, they explain: "We have no employees and we are collapsing under pressure. It is difficult, it is exhausting and there is no place to put a pin in our schedule, we work from the moment we start the shift until the second it ends.
There are no quiet moments, everything is busy all the time. "
The chaos of luggage
Last week, two new projectors were deployed to return the lost luggage to their owners.
One is responsible for the luggage that does not take off from Israel and the other for the luggage that arrives from abroad late, these are the same luggage that we all see abandoned next to the conveyor belts.
Since they began their work, and with the help of hundreds of volunteers who come to Ben Gurion Airport to help return the lost luggage, about 1,300 suitcases have been returned to their owners. , On the quality of service and the attitude of employees towards those who seek their dignity.
It should be noted that we tried to reach Laufer by phone advertised on the Internet, but did not receive a response for days.
Israir CEO Uri Sirkis, Photo: Public Relations
Most flights from Ben Gurion Airport are completely full, and almost all Israelis have understood the method - to arrive with trolley luggage, sometimes even two, to store them in the compartments above the seats in the plane and so they will arrive safely at the destination, while many luggage does not reach their destination. One hundred percent - many airlines are facing a new phenomenon of "trolley load" - there is no room in the compartments above the seats, so they are forced to move the trolley to the belly of the plane as well. The plane.
safe optimism
In a conversation with Uri Sirkis, CEO of Israir, he estimates that it will not be long before we see an improvement in queues and congestion.
Passengers understand the possibility that they have to fly with a trolley, and the whole industry, from workers to passengers, is undergoing adjustments, in the hope that soon there will be an improvement in everything related to queues and congestion at airports.
"In August there will indeed be more passengers than in July, which was already busy anyway, we are making every effort to make everything work properly."
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