NaTBaG 2000 Has Arrived!
Isn't that a strange title? Well, not if you know that Israel's international airport in Tel Aviv, known as Ben Gurion International Airport has recently opened (almost five years behind schedule) what they call "NaTBaG 2000". The letters N T B G are actually the initials of the Hebrew "Namal Teufah Ben Gurion" or in English, Ben Gurion Airport, and the 2000 was supposed to be the year that they opened up the brand new Terminal 3. Unfortunately, all sorts of bureaucracy got in the way, and NaTBaG 2000 only opened in November of 2004. So this old review is now being revised from top to bottom, for your convenience, and I warn you, in advance, its gonna be a long read! If you're still interested, sit back and I hope you enjoy the ride.
Let me start from the beginning. When you reach the airport by car, taxi or bus, the traffic is all directed towards the new Terminal 3. If you're dropping someone off, there is a large drop-off area with several lanes with stopping on both sides, to allow easy access. I must say that the first time I went to pick someone up, I was a bit shocked at the amount of driving I had to do to get from the entrance security to the short-term parking lot. We're talking pretty out of the way here a la Heathrow Terminal 4, if you get my meaning.
The new short-term lots are large (total 2045 spaces - and costs 13 shekels for the first hour - one more shekel than the old lot), several stories high, and connected to the terminal via glass enclosed walkways over a lovely terraced garden that is still a bit sparse, but promises to eventually be gorgeous (I haven't figured out if you can go out to those gardens, or not, yet). The walkways from the parking lead to elevators and escalators to help you get to the right floor. If you're planning to leave your car in the long-term lot (located near the old Terminal 1), there are regular and frequent shuttle busses that will get you to Terminal 3 (which we had before). All the signs are relatively clear, in English and Hebrew (but unfortunately, not all are in Arabic as well, just yet but I hear they're working on that). There's a car rental parking lot with 535 spaces and two more parking lots with more than another 2000 spaces for parking subscription holders, whatever that means.
Past experience has shown that this airport can be chock-a-block full - even when its not tourist season (or when tourists don't come - for obvious, and unfortunate reasons). This made waiting to check in an extremely long and unpleasant experience even at the best of times (and especially after they canceled many of the satellite early check-in' stations). NaTBaG 2000's Terminal 3, however, has a huge check-in area which has a whopping 110 check-in desks. Before getting to those desks, you still have some queuing for the initial security check and x-raying of your baggage - I counted four machines just in the ElAl area, but saw that there are more for other airlines. With the new, spacious hall and all those desks, this is now as hassle free as possible. I think I even saw separate security lines for business-class passengers. You might, however, find yourself in a separate line for holders of non-Israeli passport holders, but that's par for our course here, if you ask me.
Once checked in, you are instructed go through to the next area which is a sort of informal lounge. What's nice about this is you can go there WITH your non-traveling friends and relatives because it is BEFORE you go through passport control! This means you finally have a place in Ben Gurion Airport where you can have a really pleasant (or tearful, as the case may be) goodbye. There are some shops, cafes and restaurants, and lots of space for sitting for a last minute farewell chat. This has cleverly been called "Buy & Bye", and even if you're not going anywhere or not even taking someone to a flight, you could just visit this charming 'mall'. Thing is, it's beautifully designed with a high roof that looks like the wings of an airplane. The shops, however, are nothing special except for the music shop which belongs to a chain in Israel that sells the most reasonably priced CDs around. Unfortunately, at this branch their prices are 'tourist' oriented, and I didn't find any real bargains.
Once you've said goodbye to your friends and/or relatives, you go through to passport control. This is through short passageways into a very large hall (again). Here there are 40 manned booths (well, 40 booths that could all be manned, if the need is there) as well as 14 machines for doing passport control with your hand-print. These are called 'biometric exams' and only Israelis who have signed up for this service can use them. I'm signed up and I love using them especially when I return to Israel when the passport lines can be frustratingly tedious after a long flight, which is when I'm usually dying to get out of the building to grab a smoke.
Past the passport control is the hand luggage and traveler body (electronic, of course) inspection and then you are ushered along "The Avenue" towards the departure lounge. This "avenue" is actually a long ramp with moving sidewalks and lots of windows on one side so you can look out on the view of some of the air field. I do hope they do some planting out there when Spring comes, to make this a prettier vista.
This takes you to the departure lounge area - which they are calling the "Rotunda" - probably because its round (well, duh!). Here are all of the expected large duty-free and other shops as well as more restaurants to help you spend the remainder of your shekels or pick up some last minute gifts, or grab a bite before a long flight. This is very spacious looking and airy with a high domed ceiling. If you look up at the sides of the Rotunda, you might see people on a walkway above you - those are arriving passengers, so don't think there's more to the departure Rotunda that you haven't found yet.
Jutting out of the Rotunda are three concourses - B, C and D (I guess they decided not to use A out of respect for our old Terminal 1). I didn't actually see signs towards B, but rather it looked like they have two C concourses - but that's not how the map shows it (see Technical Stuff below). In any case, these concourses lead towards the departure gates.
Along the side of each of the concourses, but before you get to the gates, you'll see VIP lounges. Two lounges are for people (like me) who have some "in" to be allowed entrance to them - such as holders a certain credit card (like me). The third lounge is the King David VIP lounge, and its only for ElAl Frequent Flyer Preferred customers (level gold and above, I believe). The "lower class" lounges are actually very dark inside - with highly stained wood paneling, which I suppose is supposed to be classy' but I just found depressing. The biggest problem here was that these are long and thin (being along a corridor) and feel very cramped. According to my boss (ElAl Frequent Flyer of Platinum status), the King David lounge is also long, thin and has a cramped feeling as well. Too bad, because our old Terminal 1 VIP lounges were both lovely, spacious, squared areas that were both very comfortable (yes, I was in the old King David lounge - but only because I was traveling with a Gold Frequent Flyer).
As you go along towards the gates, you'll notice that you have some more moving sidewalks to help you along your way. You'll also see a few more shops at the end of each concourse. If you make it all the way to the very ends, you'll find a coffee bar and around the corner from those, are the enclosed smoking areas which are very well ventilated (finally!), if a bit sparsely furnished.
On to your departure. After years of stair climbing and bus riding to get to and from your planes, the new airport terminal has installed connection sleeves. This may not seem like such an innovation to you, but when you're waiting for a bus to take you onto a plane, you'll find that the lines run fairly slowly. Once you've got sleeves, you just give in your ticket and walk down the sleeve to the plane, so this speeds up boarding by a minimum of 35%. With this figure, I'm also taking into account the wait to get onto the bus, the bus ride itself and then boarding via stairs. And so, you'll be on your way - Bon Voyage!
Oh, hold up. I do have to tell you about arriving at the new Terminal 3, don't I? Sure thing.
Again, as your plane lands, it parks where sleeves hook up to the plane so you'll be once again spared the staircase off the plane, onto a bus and shuttle to the arrivals area. Unfortunately, there is only one sleeve per plane here - meaning everyone has to file out through one door. When there were busses, they could bring stairs to two different exits and so exiting the plane was quicker. Still, since you don't have to wait for a bus, this doesn't slow things down too badly - but it is noticeably longer than before (but if you're not in 1st or Business Class, that is).
These sleeves actually take you to a higher level above the departure concourses. In this way a plane that is arriving only to depart again shortly, doesn't have to move elsewhere to take on its new passengers - it just has to get a different sleeve to connect up to it. Very smart. This also means that you'll be facing a ramp walk ahead of you as you exit the sleeve. Now you have to get all the way from the end of the airport, around the Rotunda (remember, above, I said you'd see from the Rotunda people on a higher level than you?), along the "avenue" to passport control. This is actually quite a long walk (again, a la Heathrow, but not nearly as long) but you again have moving sidewalks to assist in speeding this up. Some might complain about this but personally, after any flight, I always feel the need to stretch my legs, and I found this to be refreshing, rather than tiring. Since I wasn't in transit, I can't tell you about the transit passenger's area, but I do know that you get to it from that upstairs area around the Rotunda (yes, I do look for signs like that, just so my readers can be informed).
After your walk, you reach the passport control area which is very large, equipped with lots of desks and again those machines for people (like me) who have the subscribed to the hand-print system, thereby relieving pressure on the desks. Not being an EU country, of course, there are desks for Israeli passport holders and non-Israeli passport holders. Of course, those people coming on Aliyah (moving to Israel), are directed to the immigration offices.
If you're returning home or just coming for a visit, then you go directly into the baggage claim area. There are a whole 10, extremely long and wide, conveyor belts for baggage, and each belt has two spots where the bags come out from, so you won't have everyone bunching up in one or two spots along the belt. My plane wasn't a terribly big one, so it wasn't at all crowded, but I imagine that a large, trans-Atlantic flight may find people needing to wait two-deep at the most - a vast improvement over the previous 4-5 deep crowds from Terminal 1.
Once you've got your baggage, you're ready to leave the airport. Now, it seems a shame that the Terminal 1 arrivals terminal area had been renovated not too long ago. It was made larger and airy and pretty with no small amount of room for family and friends to meet their loved ones who have arrived. But truth be told, it still got pretty crowded, and I'm wondering if they didn't actually use that renovation as a taste-test for the public's opinion of the Terminal 3 design, since they are very similar. More about the design, below.
When leaving the airport you have several options. Straight out from the same level as the arrivals are where you'll find taxis, limos, busses and other shuttle services. One drawback was I could see no way to get to a spot where a private car could stand to wait for someone to come outside - which means those picking you up at the airport might be forced to use the parking lots (but if someone knows better, I'd be pleased for them to let me know). If you need to rent a car, or have to get to the short-term parking lot, you'll need to go up a level. If you've got a trolley, there are some elevators to help with that, but if you're without a trolley, there are escalators you can use (which are equipped with a power-save feature that slows them down when no one is on them). But here's something new - if you're going to Tel Aviv, you can take the train from the new Terminal 3! Yes, downstairs is a train station - like in a real civilized country. Of course, right now the trains are only to Tel Aviv (and from there to trains to other parts of the country), but they're close to finishing the tracks to a large suburb half way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv called Modi'in, which will eventually (not soon enough for me, however) connect up to Jerusalem - HURRAH!
So, that's the total NaTBaG 2000 experience - or is it? I've got to point out here that this facility is truly a sight to behold, aesthetically speaking. First of all, there's lots of granite and marble everywhere in calm, creamy beige and tan colours, mixed with a good amount of high-tech chrome and blue-green accents in the windows and partitions. While this could be cold, it just didn't feel like it, due to the light feeling it produces - and remember, Israel is a hot country, so we don't want anything too warming. This could also be slippery, but on all the ramps I found non-skid strips to help you keep your footing. During the day, there's lots of natural light coming in from many windows, but not enough to heat any areas up to unbearable levels - probably because they have efficient air conditioning (thank heavens). At night, the high ceilings and diffused general lighting makes for a welcome atmosphere. It also seems so clean everywhere - the bathrooms, the shops, the lounges, the service areas (which include lots of bathrooms, very conveniently located) - all over. Of course, this may be only because its so new, but let's hope that won't be the case.
I have to say that inside the airport there are plenty of signs everywhere, but you don't feel like you're being attacked by them (like you do at Heathrow, for instance). Big banks of information signs like departure and arrival information, seem to be tastefully placed where as many people can see them as possible, but without being "in your face" or hanging down from low beams on tiny monitors. Directions to where you want to go seem to appear only when you're looking for something in particular. And if you're in need of special services like a motorized trolley to get you somewhere, these are readily available and they don't seem to bother the flow of other passengers due to the accommodating proportions of all of the corridors and passageways.
Lastly, I have to remind people that this is Israel, and we take our security very seriously here. When I first reviewed this airport, that was one of the drawbacks of Terminal 1, because proper security is space-consuming and the old terminal just couldn't handle it. Today, this is no longer the case, and while you won't end up with a queue-free visit at this airport, you'll at least have very reasonable waits, all things considered. Trust me, arrival and departure from Ben Gurion airport will no longer be the frustratingly painful black spot on an otherwise lovely visit. So come - I'll take you around and show you my home and give me a good excuse to visit NaTBaG 2000's Terminal 3 again (without having to pay for a ticket)!
Thanks for reading!