Ryanair said on Tuesday it will not resume operations to and from Israel in the winter due to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport’s “refusal” to grant the Irish low-cost airline its flight slots for next year’s summer season.
“We 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,” a Ryanair spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
“We are fed up having our low-fare flights repeatedly messed around by Ben Gurion Airport — it is absurd that they refused to confirm our summer 2026 slots, when summer 2026 schedules are already on sale,” the statement continued.
“We regret this means that Tel Aviv will no longer have access to Ryanair’s much lower fares, or to the 22 routes we operated last winter, but until such time as Tel Aviv are willing to honor their low-cost agreements with Ryanair, we are unwilling to restart flights there,” the spokesperson added.
In September, Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O’Leary said the low-cost carrier may not return to Israel even when violence related to the Gaza war recedes. The airline earlier this summer extended the suspension of flight services to Israel through October 25.
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Since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October 2023, foreign airlines have repeatedly canceled and resumed their flights to and from Israel.
Israeli security forces at the site where a missile fired from Yemen hit an area of Ben Gurion Airport, on May 4, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Ryanair last canceled its services after a ballistic missile from Yemen impacted within the airport grounds on May 4, along with most foreign airlines. The Houthi missile impacted in a grove of trees alongside an access road close to Terminal 3, several hundred meters from the airport control tower.
The ongoing security situation, which has included rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq, and a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic, has led to Israeli airlines, chiefly El Al, operating at a near-monopoly on some routes and setting exorbitant ticket prices.
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