Tel Aviv Ben Gurion flight delay and cancellation compensation

Tel Aviv Ben Gurion flight delay and cancellation: your rights

Ben Gurion is Israel's main airport, and it is the one place in this directory where two separate laws cover the same flight. Israel is not in the EU. That single fact splits your rights by which airline you booked.

It also means a claim refused under one law may still be good under the other.

Does EU261 cover a flight from Tel Aviv?

It depends entirely on the airline.

• Flying to Europe on an EU or EEA airline — Lufthansa, Wizz Air, easyJet — EU261 applies, because an EU carrier is bringing you into the EU.
• Flying to Europe on El Al, Israir or Arkia — EU261 does not apply. The flight leaves a non-EU airport and the airline is not European.
• Flying from Europe to Tel Aviv — EU261 applies whoever flies it, because the flight left an EU airport.

So the outbound and the return leg of one trip can sit under different regimes, and the answer changes with the airline rather than the route.

What Israel's own law adds

Israel's Aviation Services Law fills most of that gap. It covers flights landing in Israel and departing from it, whoever operates them, foreign airlines included.

It works to different thresholds than EU261. Assistance starts at two hours of delay. Money starts at eight hours, or on a cancellation the airline announced with less than fourteen days' notice.

The sums are set in shekels and fixed by distance: 1,530, 2,450 or 3,670 ILS. As under EU261, the fare you paid does not come into it.

What goes wrong at Ben Gurion

Security processing is heavier here than at any comparable airport, and it lengthens turnarounds. Regional airspace closures have grounded and diverted flights at short notice in recent years, and those are the clearest example of an extraordinary circumstance on these routes.

Extraordinary circumstances are the airline's to prove, for your flight rather than in general. A technical fault found in routine maintenance stays the airline's responsibility, and so does a crew shortage.

How to claim Tel Aviv Ben Gurion flight delay compensation

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded departure and arrival times for your flight from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion and tells you which band it falls in.

Your Tel Aviv Ben Gurion compensation claim turns on two things: the arrival time, and the reason the airline gives.

For a late arrival, read the flight delay compensation guide. For a flight that never flew, read the cancellation compensation guide. It covers Tel Aviv Ben Gurion cancellation compensation too. Has the airline said no? The case law summary sets out what the courts make of the usual excuses.