Aviation History
Israeli civil aviation began almost simultaneously with the state's founding in 1948, when El Al Israel Airlines was established and flew its first flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv carrying President Chaim Weizmann. Lod Airport, later renamed Ben Gurion Airport in 1973, became the country's principal international gateway. Owing to regional conflict, Israeli aviation developed some of the world's most stringent security protocols after a series of hijackings and attacks from the late 1960s through the 1980s, including the 1968 hijacking of El Al Flight 426 and the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis, in which Israeli commandos rescued passengers (many Israeli) from a hijacked Air France flight. El Al later carried out large humanitarian airlifts, notably Operation Solomon in 1991. From late 2023 onward, the Gaza war and related regional escalation — including Houthi missile attacks from Yemen and direct Iran-Israel missile exchanges in 2025 — repeatedly disrupted operations at Ben Gurion Airport, prompting many foreign carriers to suspend or limit Israel service for extended periods even as El Al expanded its market share domestically.
El Al Israel Airlines was founded and made its first flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv, carrying President Chaim Weizmann.
El Al inaugurated regular scheduled service between Tel Aviv and Paris via Rome, its first international route.
A Boeing 707 was hijacked to Algiers by PFLP militants, the only successful hijacking in El Al's history.
Israel's main international airport at Lod was renamed Ben Gurion Airport after the country's first prime minister.
Israeli commandos raided Entebbe, Uganda, to free hostages from a hijacked Air France flight, many of them Israeli or Jewish, reinforcing Israel's aviation security doctrine.
El Al airlifted roughly 14,500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in about 36 hours, including a single Boeing 747 flight carrying over 1,000 passengers.
An aviation liberalisation agreement with the European Union increased competition and route options on Israel-Europe flights.
The Gaza war and related regional escalation, including Houthi missile strikes from Yemen and direct Iran-Israel exchanges, led to repeated temporary closures of Ben Gurion Airport and extended flight suspensions by many foreign carriers into 2025.
El Al · Arkia · Israir · Up (former El Al low-cost brand)
Compiled from general public/encyclopedic sources; Israel's aviation situation from 2024 onward is an active, evolving security and conflict situation (Gaza war, Houthi attacks, Iran-Israel exchanges), and details on airline suspensions or airport status should be treated as time-sensitive and possibly outdated.
Aviation Firsts
Ben Gurion Airport (formerly Lydda Airfield) — Lod (1934): Built 1934 under the British Mandate; first passenger service 3 Aug 1935 (Misr Airwork, Cairo-Lydda-Nicosia); captured by Israeli forces July 1948; renamed Ben Gurion International 1973. Israel's main international gateway, continuous site use since 1934. · TLV ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Haifa Airport (Uri Michaeli Haifa International Airport) — Haifa (1934): Established 1934 by the British Mandate 'as its first international airport,' at the site of RAF Haifa. The article's own text states directly: 'It is Israel's oldest international airport.' However, the same page says it only 'received international status' in 1994 — an internal inconsistency flagged rather than resolved. · Wikipedia ↗
Lydda/Ben Gurion and Haifa are both dated to 1934 in their respective Wikipedia articles, but no source directly adjudicates which came first within that year, and Haifa's own page makes an explicit 'oldest' claim that is in tension with its own stated 1994 'international status' date. Both reported rather than picking a winner. A possible even-older WWI-era site (Megiddo Airfield) could not be checked this session due to a tool restriction.
Palestine Airways (1934): Registered 18 December 1934; began commercial flights 11 August 1937; ceased August 1940 (aircraft taken by the RAF). Founded by Pinhas Rutenberg with the Histadrut and Jewish Agency under the British Mandate. The earliest dated airline operating in the territory that became Israel, predating the State of Israel, with no stated lineage to a later carrier. · Wikipedia ↗
El Al (1948): Founded 1948; first flight (Geneva-Tel Aviv, carrying President Weizmann) 28 Sept 1948; formally became flag carrier 15 Nov 1948. First owned aircraft (DC-4s) arrived 3 April 1949; first international scheduled route Tel Aviv-Paris, 31 July 1949. Israel's flag carrier, operating today. · LY ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Palestine Airways (1934) is the genuinely earliest airline operating in the territory, but it is defunct, pre-dates statehood, and has no documented lineage to El Al or any still-operating carrier. El Al (1948) is Israel's oldest airline of the State of Israel with an unbroken lineage to a still-operating carrier.
Quality Airport Services (QAS) (Switzerland), 1996: QAS is a joint venture between Swissport International (Switzerland) and Knafaim Group (an Israeli holding company, parent of Arkia Airlines). Per its own company profile, QAS has provided ground handling services at all Israeli airports since November 1996. This is the earliest documented entry of a major global handler brand into Israel's ground-handling market found in this research; marked tentative because no source explicitly calls this the first foreign entrant and the Swiss parent operates through a joint structure rather than solely. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · Aviation Week Marketplace ↗
Aviation Museums1
Fleet by Operator
Annual Passenger Traffic by Airport
Airlines6
Live Air Traffic12 aircraft
Source: adsb.lol — community ADS-B network. Busiest of this country’s top 6 profiled airports by traffic right now, not a full national count.
Aircraft Spotted Here
Photo: Davidi Vardi via JetPhotos
Photo: chaichai via JetPhotos
Photo: Idan6 via JetPhotos
Photo: Daniel_Matok via JetPhotos
Photo: Itay S via JetPhotos
Photo: B-1942 via JetPhotosPhotos © their respective photographers, via JetPhotos.com — click a photo to view the original.