Transportation Minister Miri Regev decided on Thursday to allow flights to depart from Ben-Gurion International Airport for an additional 24 hours, until a final decision could be reached on whether flights would or would not be permitted during the lockdown, which starts on 2 p.m. Friday.
Some 5,000 ticket holders arrived at the airport on Thursday to leave for destinations abroad, many hoping to wait out the lockdown. Most of the travelers were headed to Greece on 12 separate flights. Others were bound for one of the nine flights departing for Turkey, and still others had reservations on eight flights leaving for Bulgaria and the US.
Unsurprisingly, the uncertainty surrounding flight status has led to a spike in cancellations and changes to reservations. The travel agency Gulliver reported Thursday that it was fielding 60% more calls from customers than usual.
