mikebg

They were there on Monday mornig this week. Just a newer design. More compact than the old ones, and more of them.

Ditto

Apparently this was taken several hours ago (picture going around on Facebook)

NYTA

That is a disgrace. Is there a strike?

Houminer

I don't know if there is an official strike.
Six yeas ago the "immigration officers" were moved from the police to the Intrenal ministry (misraf hapnim). Since then there are problems with their salary. The supreme court said that the state needs to pay but they didn't get the money.
I think thet don't really have an incentive to work.

craz

Unfortunately I dont see this thread providing any real help. Reason is simple all that is needed is for UA 84 to be delayed (a 777) that is usually full and it will cause a major backlog. To an extent that will happen even if a narrow body from Europe is delayed another 150+ people added to the mix.

Yrs ago this was my major concern if TWA was delayed it usually meant arriving 15 mins after Tower did = an extra hour at best to clear Immigration. Now the problem is how many flights from Eastern Europe lands around the time the delayed UA flight does. If the 84 comes in on time or even slightly early its a slam dunk, otherwise forget about it.

I found a loophold (dont bother PMing it wont be shared sorry, least it get shutdown by everyone finding out about it and following suit).

I just dont see what good this thread can come to since the factors that will determine the length of time needed to clear is different each day due to the flights arriving early or delayed, wish that wasnt the case

NYTA

It seems like you have more than one reason to not participate further in the thread then.

Dovster

In June, I flew SOF-TLV on El Al, with a late night departure. The plane was late in getting into SOF (not an usual situation with El Al) and they rushed the passengers to board, saying that if we don't depart in time to arrive by a certain time (I think it was 1 a.m. but am not certain) we would not be able to take off for an additional 3 hours, as TLV would be jammed with large flights arriving from North America.

craz

Im aware of several wide-bodys departing for the US in the 1am area, but cant think of a single Airline that arrives into TLV from the US anywhere near that hour. I think LY has a flight getting in @ 5am some days There are several European Carriers that arrive bet 2am & 3:30am and depart from 4:30am - 5am

The worst is YomTov time when all the LCCs are full of the pilgrims coming in and Immigration goes over PP and Visa (if needed) with a fine tooth comb. Which only becomes clear after you reach the booth area, then even a short line takes forever. Too bad they dont have kyosks for the non-Israelis to use as they do for departures but I fully understand why they dont

Dov, I just realized what it is, doesnt TLV have a curfew @ 2am that lasts for 3 hours. So they wouldnt be able to take off until they left enough time to arrive after the curfew ends. Was it a rent-a-crew that handles the flight

craz

Well then please explain how the data is useful if say 1/2 the kyosks were down today and someone says it took them 35 mins to get into the baggage hall. Or due to bad weather flights from Europe were backed up by 2 hrs

I dont see how any info can benefit me unless its basically the same info day after day, change 1 or more items and I cant use the data from yesterday to predict what the case will be today. Thats why I knew yrs ago if TWA was delayed enough that Tower would beat us that I would lose close to an hour. But there was a known constant, if wed beat Tower or not, but thats not your case.

I wish I was wrong, and maybe I am thusly why I continue to follow the thread, just in case there is some info I didnt think of that would change what my thoughts are

TomMM

Thats worse than the crowd I encountered entering BEY a few weeks ago.

sabbasolo

Here are the official restrictions on night flight:

NIGHT FLYING RESTRICTIONS
RWY 30 is not available for take-off between 2300-0600LT, unless approved, in exceptional circumstances, by APT manager.
Other RWYs: ACFT shall not take off between 0140-0530LT during winter season, and 0140-0500LT during summer season. Take-off between 0140-0200LT shall be approved, only in exceptional circumstances, by APT manager.
Take-off between 0530-0600LT during winter season, and 0500-0600LT during summer season, shall be approved in one of the following conditions: 1) The noise level will not exceed a "Reduced Noise Level" as recorded by the Noise monitoring terminals (NMT). "Reduced Noise Level", for this matter, is a noise level that will not exceed the maximum noise level of -3 dbA, approved for departures of ACFT with MAX take-off weight of less than 300t. (Refer to chart LLBG 10-4). 2) Flights, scheduled to depart before the night take-off restriction, and were delayed, may be approved by APT manager, without the restriction above.
Exceptions: - ACFT rendering medical assistance; - Firefighting ACFT; - Cloud-seeding flights; - Other special flights only by prior permission from CAAI.

craz

Interesting its only on Take-offs, here in the US its for both take-offs and landings. Ive arrived into JFK a # of times due to LGA being after curfew

Ditto

I arrived today at about 4AM, there seemed to be 4 counters open for foreign passports and 4 counters open for Israeli passports, the queue started at the entrance to the hall, so not bad at all. (Just for comparison, I transferred in Rome where the non-EU queue to get to G/H gates started 20 meters after the last shop of C gates!)

It seemed to me that several flights arrived at that time, as I was passing a group waiting near the toilets in concourse C, as well as another group was coming from concourse B as I was passing, I was the first off from my AZ flight, and managed to get past most of the PAX from the concourse B flight, I imagine it might have gotten busier later as more flights seem to land at that time.

No queues whatsoever for the biometric machines on both sides, the ones on the right side at least had some activity, the ones on the left only some bored agents, I take it normal Israeli passports cannot use them any more?

Dovster

Were the machines for the biometric cards still being used?

gordo6

Also note that LY has special clearance to depart during the curfew on Fridays, so that the aircraft could be back to Israel before Shabbat enters.
Thus in the winter they operate 3AM flights to LTN, AMS etc.