jerusalem | All eyes were on Ben-Gurion Airport’s new terminal this Passover.
While over 530,000 High Holy Day travelers marveled at the airport’s modernity, relative enormity and advanced facilities, tourism and aviation professionals scrutinized Terminal 3’s capacity for high-volume traffic.
As the first wave of seasonal traffic passed through the terminal with satisfactory efficiency, skeptics have eased into a renewed confidence regarding the airport’s handling abilities, the potential it holds for the economy and Israel’s standing in the international community.
For El Al Chairman Israel Borovich, the new terminal presents a unique opportunity to extend Tel Aviv beyond its status as a final-stop-destination and build along with it El Al’s image as a global airline.
“I want to turn Ben-Gurion into an original hub,” Borovich said, “to make Israel the gateway to Asia again as it was in the times of the Bible.”
The new terminal is a great thing, he added, and is one of the new concepts he wants to introduce into the country: to stop talking about Israel being at the end of the route.
In a politically sensitive local aviation industry, many argue the practicality of the idea. “In order to be a hub, Tel Aviv needs to be a viable stop for business travelers to the Far East,” said Mark Feldman, CEO of ZionTours. “While I agree with the idea in principle, it can only work if we meet the needs of the business clientele.”
He added that considering El Al’s current flight plan into Asia it would not be realistic. “At the moment you have a situation where Israeli business customers on El Al’s frequent flyer program have to fly via Frankfurt to reach Tokyo because there are no direct flights there,” Feldman said. “El Al would need to seriously add routes to its plan.”
The airline currently flies to four destinations in the Far East: Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok and Mumbai. It discontinued its popular route to Seoul a decade ago and does not fly to Tokyo.
Its major competitors out of Tel Aviv into Asia are Lufthansa and British Air which as part of airline alliances are able to easily offer convenient packages into Asia. Lufthansa is part of the Star Alliance, of which most of the 16 carriers are Asian, and British Air is a member of One World.
Currently, the biggest hub in the region is Istanbul, which industry players say achieved this from a rise in tourism to Turkey, the revamping of the airport and the expansion of Turkish Air’s services and fleet, allowing it to effectively compete with European carriers. That’s a feat they agree would be more difficult for El Al to achieve, due to its difficulties in luring business customers because of longer flights into Asia, resulting from Israeli carriers not being able to fly over certain Arab countries.
Borovich remains aware of the requirements, however, and is optimistic that the conditions will be presented to make the idea a reality. “Soon enough there will be peace around here, and we’ll be able to fly freely,” Borovich said. “It’s true that now we need to add an hour or two of flying, but such a beautiful terminal can really overcome the problem, because there are not that many beautiful terminals around this area.”
“This is one of my objectives, which of course will also be part of El Al 2010 and I want to bring the Israeli government into this project,” he added, “but the terminal is here, so let’s use it.”