Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Ben Gurion International Airport (LLBG/TLV) is Israel's principal gateway, lying between the city of Lod and the towns of Or Yehuda and Yehud-Monosson in the Central District, roughly midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Operated by the Israel Airports Authority, it is a major hub for El Al, Israir, Arkia and Sundor and offers a simulator pilot a full range of long, ILS-equipped hard runways and a busy, tightly controlled Class A traffic environment.
Ben Gurion International Airport, known in Hebrew by the acronym Natbag, is Israel's principal international airport and the country's busiest. It sits on the outskirts north of Lod and south of Or Yehuda and Yehud-Monosson, and is operated by the Israel Airports Authority under the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety. It serves as a hub for El Al, Israir, Arkia and Sundor, and for a flight simulator pilot it offers an interesting mix of large-airport procedures, multiple long instrument runways and dense commercial traffic typical of a national gateway airport.
The airport lies in the Central District of Israel, about 20 kilometres southeast of Tel Aviv and 45 kilometres northwest of Jerusalem, immediately north of Lod and south of Or Yehuda and Yehud-Monosson. As Israel's principal international gateway it sits within controlled airspace worked by Tel Aviv Control, with approach and tower services layered beneath it; it has historically been regarded as the country's single major point of entry, a status that led to the later opening of Ramon Airport in the south of the country.
Ben Gurion has three physical runways, all hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 08/26 is the longest, with the 08 threshold giving 11,975 ft available and the 26 threshold 11,340 ft, and both ends served by ILS. Runway 12/30 offers 10,192 ft from runway 12 and 9,936 ft from runway 30, again with ILS on both directions. Runway 03/21 is the shortest pairing, at 9,094 ft from runway 03 (without ILS) and 9,093 ft from runway 21, which is equipped with ILS. The field elevation is 118 feet.
Ben Gurion Approach works on 120.5 MHz, with the airport ATIS broadcasting on 132.5 MHz. Tel Aviv Control handles the surrounding controlled airspace on 121.4 MHz. On the ground, Ben Gurion Ground operates on 118.05 MHz, with a second ground/delivery frequency on 129.2 MHz, and Ben Gurion Tower controls the runways and immediate circuit on 134.6 MHz. Instrument approaches are available, with ILS serving runways 08, 26, 12, 30 and 21.
As a major controlled international airport, Ben Gurion is worked throughout by Tower, Ground and Approach control rather than through informal circuit joining, with arriving and departing traffic sequenced by Tel Aviv Control and Ben Gurion Approach under instrument flight rules procedures appropriate to the airport's runway and ILS layout.
The airport began under the British Mandate for Palestine as an airstrip with two unpaved runways on the outskirts of Lydda, near the Templer colony of Wilhelma, built in 1934. The first scheduled passenger service began on 3 August 1935 with the Misr Airwork route linking Cairo, Lydda and Nicosia, and by the late 1930s Lydda had four fully operational concrete runways, with LOT Polish Airlines and KLM among the carriers using the field. During the Second World War the airport was renamed RAF Station Lydda in 1943 and served as a major staging point for military air transport and aircraft ferrying between Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia. Aviron began a Lydda-Haifa service in 1944, and in 1946 TWA inaugurated the first civilian transatlantic route between New York and Lydda. The British relinquished the airport at the end of April 1948, and Israeli forces captured it on 10 July 1948 during Operation Danny, transferring control to the newly declared State of Israel; it was renamed Tel Aviv-Lod International Airport that year and resumed flights on 24 November 1948. Passenger numbers grew rapidly, from 40,000 in 1948 to 100,000 a month by 1952, and by the mid-1960s fourteen international airlines were using the field. The airport was renamed Ben Gurion International Airport in 1973 in honour of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, who died that year.
Ben Gurion continues to operate as Israel's principal international airport and hub for El Al, Israir, Arkia and Sundor, handling over 19 million passengers in 2025 and remaining one of the busiest airports in the Middle East. It is managed by the Israel Airports Authority and has undergone successive terminal expansions to meet growing traffic, reflecting its role as the country's main entry point for international travellers.
