Anyone who has flown in or out of Tel Aviv can surely attest to the congestion felt at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport. A recent Israel Airports Authority report shows an increase of 1.6 million passengers passing through the transportation hub on international flights in 2016 as compared to 2015 figures.

According to the Israel Airports Authority, 17,387,971 passengers passed through Ben-Gurion Airport on international flights last year.

Six airlines created more than half of all traffic at Ben-Gurion Airport: El Al (5.5 million passengers), Turkish Airlines (932,000), EasyJet (719,000), Aeroflot (704,000), Arkia (650,000), and Israir (548,000).

“The market share that has really grown this year is connecting flights at Ben-Gurion Airport,” explained Ben-Gurion Airport Director Shmuel Zakai. “This is a profound change in the activity at Ben-Gurion Airport, which has become attractive for airlines that are matching their networks to the flight schedule at Ben-Gurion Airport. Companies like Turkish [Airlines], Pegasus and Aeroflot lead today’s market of connecting flights from Ben-Gurion Airport to Europe and naturally, the countries that have led the growth of 1.6 million passengers this year were Ukraine, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Cyprus.”

The Israel Airports Authority also said that 36 percent of passengers check in from home, and nine percent of passengers check in at the airport’s interactive kiosks.

Meanwhile, at Eilat’s Ovda Airport, 2016 brought a reported 97.8 percent increase in passengers compared to the previous year. The Israel Airports Authority said 128,595 passengers passed through Ovda Airport in 2016, compared with 65,006 in 2015.

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Tomer Neuberg / Flash90 ]