![\"Ryanair](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2.77690594.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe authority, which oversees operations at Ben Gurion Airport, criticised \u201cPR stunts\u201d from the airline and said it is possible to fly to Israel \u201cwithout turning it into a drama\u201d.<\/p>\n
It comes after Ryanair confirmed it will not restart flights to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv after seeking assurances around slots and fees.<\/p>\n
The airline said it would only restart 22 routes when it receives guarantees over terminal costs and is provided with the same summer slots next year that it received this year.<\/p>\n
Last week, Ryanair chief Michael O\u2019Leary told reporters that Ben Gurion Airport had until Tuesday to guarantee it would keep \u201clow-cost\u201d charges if Ryanair flights were moved to the \u201chigh-cost\u201d terminal and that it will have all its slots back next year.<\/p>\n
He said if this did not happen the airline would not be returning to operation in Israel, adding: \u201cFrankly, it wouldn\u2019t cost me much of a thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ryanair chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – October 1st <\/p>\n
Ryanair\u2019s services to Tel Aviv were disrupted this summer due to security concerns over Israeli airspace and the airport\u2019s decisions to, on occasion, move Ryanair from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 \u2013 which carries higher costs.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the airline said: \u201cWe are fed up having our low-fare flights repeatedly messed around by Ben Gurion Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is absurd that they refused to confirm our summer 2026 slots, when summer 2026 schedules are already on sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate that many airlines, including Ryanair, cancelled their flights to\/from Tel Aviv this summer, but only because it was unsafe to operate there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not willing to restart loss-making flights to\/from Tel Aviv for the winter season, without the certainty that our summer 2026 historic slots have been confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryanair said it has \u201cno difficulty\u201d working with the Tel Aviv airport to temporarily move to Terminal 3 but said this should come with Terminal 1 rates.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cUntil such time as Ben Gurion Airport confirm our historic S26 slots, and confirm that they will in future keep T1 open, we will not restart low-fare flights to\/from Tel Aviv this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to the PA news agency, a spokesperson for the Israel Airports Authority said: \u201cWe regret to see that Ryanair continues trying to persuade the public that there is a \u2018problem\u2019 in Israel \u2013 when the only problem is the company\u2019s refusal to operate the flights it had committed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the slots it requested for the winter of 2025\u20132026 were fully granted, and the flights are scheduled to depart from Terminal 1 \u2013 exactly as is the case with other low-cost airlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terminal is open, fully operational, and ready to welcome Ryanair passengers as of tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added: \u201cThe Israel Airports Authority is prepared to provide full services for the benefit of the airline\u2019s passengers, but the choice now lies with Ryanair: To make use of the rights it has been granted, or to continue with PR stunts at the expense of its customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs many foreign airlines have already proven in practice \u2013 it is possible to fly to Israel, even from Terminal 1, without turning it into a drama. We would be pleased to see Ryanair also choose facts over headlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we clarified to Ryanair in a letter sent to the company about a week ago, the Israel Airports Authority has no intention of complying with Ryanair\u2019s demands for preferential conditions over other international airlines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The authority, which oversees operations at Ben Gurion Airport, criticised \u201cPR stunts\u201d from the airline and said it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,71,1843,623],"class_list":{"0":"post-96214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-michael-oleary","14":"tag-ryanair"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}