The Iran ceasefire has finally allowed Ben Gurion international airport to fully reopen after 40 days of severe war disruptions, and after the 'new normal' for people across Israel was to routinely scramble to find missile shelters.
Foreign and international carriers had canceled flights to Israel since the US-Israeli attack started on Feb. 28 - and amid the de facto shutdown in commercial air traffic across the whole region. But Israeli media says that now two days into a full reopening and foreign airlines are not coming back for a while.
Israeli airlines are hastily trying to restore their full regular schedules, amid an expected burst in travel demand during the spring and headed into the summer season.
But given rising fuel costs and expected high demand, amid the absence in seats provided by foreign airlines in 'normal times', airfares are skyrocketing, Israeli media says.
"The airfares of Israeli airlines are already skyrocketing because of expectations of strong travel demand in the coming weeks and especially during the summer months," Yoni Waxman, deputy chairman of Ophir Tours, explained to The Times of Israel.
"Prices are very high because of the low capacity of seats currently available for the upcoming period relative to the demand for bookings," Waxman continued. "Now airfares will be even higher as the Iran war sent global oil prices and jet fuel costs soaring in recent weeks," the analyst added.
TOI reviews the impact of the over one-month long war on Israel's national carriers: "Due to the imposed aviation restrictions, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir, and Air Haifa had to cancel their regular flight schedules and operate a sharply reduced emergency schedule, mainly to repatriate citizens stuck abroad and help travelers stranded inside the country leave. The restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport upended travel plans for tens of thousands of Israelis."
As people rush back to the ticketing counters, they are likely to experience sticker shock.
Serious security threats to Ben Gurion airport still persist...
And looming large in all this is the possibility that the war could just resume again at the end of the 2-week agreed upon ceasefire. Also the Lebanon crisis is still lingering. There are reports that Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon this week have reached all the way to the environs of Tel Aviv, threatening the airport once again.