The Ben Gurion International Airport reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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Ben Gurion International Airport

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David Ben-Gurion International Airport, located near Lod, 15 km from Tel Aviv, is the largest international airport in Israel. The airport's 3-letter IATA airport code is TLV, and 4-letter ICAO airport code is LLBG.

Ben Gurion is the hub of El Al Israel Airlines. During the 1980's and 1990's, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air.

The current terminal (Terminal 1) and runways were built by the administration of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1935 to 1939. Since then, the terminal building was constantly extended by the Israel Airports Authority. On November 12th 2004, a new ultra modern terminal (Terminal 3) is due to open. The new terminal has been under construction since 1997 and is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Israel. It is built to service 16 million passengers a year comparing to the current 9 million passengers.

Ben Gurion has long been a target of Palestinian terrorist groups, and so among the many terrorist attempts, in 1985, a TWA Boeing 727 flying from Tel-Aviv to Rome was hijacked and forced to fly to Beirut. The plane carried many American and Israeli passengers, and one US Marine died, when the Delta Force stormed the plane.

On May 30, 1972, 26 people (including 2 terrorists) were killed and 80 injured in an attack by the Japanese Red Army in the passenger arrival area. The victims included Aharon Katzir, a prominent protein biophysicist, and a group of 20 Puerto Rican tourists who had just arrived in Israel

Airlines flying to Ben-Gurion International Airport include:

External links