An interesting experience with the Dubai flights. I flew to Dubai the week of Nov29-Dec 3. Going there we went on flyDubai and return on Israir. I was a bit worried that the Israir flight might not happen in the end, but as we saw the issues were resolved and the flights happened.
But until the day before the return flight with Israir i did not know which Terminal in DXB it would be in.

DXB has 3 terminals, though terminal 1 is closed currently. Terminal 3 is Emirates and Flydubai exclusively, and Terminal 2 is all other airlines and some flyDubai flights.
My israir tickets and confirmation did not list the DXB terminal. DXB airport website didnt even show the flights, let alone the terminal. I contacted Israir through their website and by email. They wrote back that i should check at DXB airport when i get there to find out which terminal they are in. I wrote them back a scathing response - travel between the terminals takes 20+ minutes, and they expected me to wander around until i found which terminal they were in?

Meanwhile i used the chat feature of Dubai airports website and they were able to confirm that the Israir flight was in fact in Terminal 3.
Later i also finally got a response from Israir that their flight was in terminal 3.
This is unusual because Terminal 3 is otherwise exclusively for Emirates and flyDubai.

In retrospect, from a security perspective this makes sense. The Israeli security were clearly nervous at this airport. At the gate when they unlocked it they even wanded some ground crew.

Terminal 2 has flights from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and maybe Syria as well using those countries own airlines. Incoming flights are always a security risk in terms of what some airline crewmember or terrorist could sneak onboard the plane from an airport with lax security. By keeping the Israel airlines flights in terminal 3, they minimize that risk as all the other flights are under the control of the UAE govt.

Our Israir flight for return to TLV had only 8 passengers. This is because it was only two days after Israir started flying there.


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