"We were stuck on the plane for hours": Ben Gurion passengers face a new travel nightmare
Flights to Cyprus and Crete were delayed for hours after passengers had already boarded, with airlines reluctant to risk missing their takeoff slots.
The congestion and long lines at Ben Gurion Airport have recently been joined by another problem: passengers are being forced to wait for hours inside planes before takeoff.
On Sunday, for example, a TUS flight to Cyprus scheduled to depart at 9 a.m. took off three hours late. Initially, passengers were told that they were waiting for another bus carrying passengers who were late for boarding. The crew, which left the aircraft door open, could not explain the reason for the delay and handed out water and energy bars in an attempt to calm the atmosphere.
There were hundreds of passengers on the plane, many of them with small children. They had prepared bottles and snacks for a flight of only about an hour, but ultimately remained on the aircraft for more than four hours.
A similar incident occurred last night on a Blue Bird flight to Crete, which took off two hours after all the passengers had already boarded. In this case, the crew insisted on keeping the doors closed and the aircraft ready for takeoff, apparently concerned that if a clearance arrived and the plane was not ready, the slot could be given to another aircraft.
Angry passengers complained that the air conditioning was operating only in ventilation mode. After about an hour and a half, as children began crying and frustration among passengers grew, the crew opened the doors and allowed fresh air into the cabin. At one point, a passenger contacted the police, who forwarded a request to the Ben Gurion Airport control tower asking it to prioritize the flight.
The underlying problem is the airlines' concern about missing their assigned takeoff slots. Airlines may begin boarding on schedule and keep passengers on board even when a flight is significantly delayed. Since takeoff clearance can arrive at short notice, disembarking passengers could cause an airline to miss its slot and face an even longer delay. That delay could then have a knock-on effect on the aircraft's subsequent flights.
The result is that passengers can sometimes spend hours inside a crowded aircraft, potentially without full air conditioning and with limited food and drink supplies, instead of waiting in an air-conditioned and more spacious terminal.
Ben Gurion Airport is currently operating under particularly difficult conditions. American refueling aircraft parked at the airport are being given priority over passenger aircraft, even when they have not been assigned a takeoff or landing slot in advance.
At the same time, the flight schedule at Ben Gurion is being significantly affected by conditions in Greek airspace. Greece is currently among Europe's worst-performing aviation markets in terms of delays, amid a surge in aircraft traffic through its airspace.
Over the past month, Greece accounted for 11% of all flight delays in Europe. France ranked first with 40%, followed by Spain with 14%. The main causes of delays in Greece are capacity constraints in the airspace and a shortage of personnel. Athens International Airport alone accounted for 7% of the total flight-delay time recorded in Europe, while Thessaloniki's Macedonia Airport accounted for another 4%.
The congestion in Greek airspace is occurring alongside continued growth in passenger traffic and tourism. Greece ranked seventh among Europe's 10 busiest aviation markets, with an average of 2,842 takeoffs and landings per day, up 5% from the same period last year.
For Israeli passengers, the figures are particularly significant because Greece is one of Israel's main tourist destinations. Moreover, many flights from Israel to destinations elsewhere in Europe pass through Greek airspace. As a result, capacity constraints in Greece can affect not only direct flights to Athens and the Greek islands, but also flights departing Israel for other European destinations.
Vacation Lines, which is owned by TUS and Blue Bird, said: "The planes were ready for takeoff on time, and all passengers were already on board. The delay was caused by an unusually heavy load on the air route, and the crews were waiting for approval from the tower in Greece, so it was impossible to know in advance how long the wait would last.
"It is important to emphasize that the flights were operated by Bulgarian airline ALK Airlines. During this period, the Vacation Lines group operates approximately 90 flights daily to and from Israel through a variety of airlines, with a significant portion of its activity involving eight destinations in Greece.
"During the wait, the crews did everything possible to make things easier for passengers, including distributing water, opening the doors and activating ventilation, subject to safety restrictions. The aircraft were parked on the runway rather than on the apron so that they could be ready for takeoff as soon as clearance was received."
