Tel Aviv Airport

Not Verified | Traumatising experience in this airport last friday. Everything was ok when we arrived but it was a whole different story when we left Israel. The first security check before checking in our luggage is simply ridiculous. We got interviewed by a very young girl who was clearly having fun torturing us with the most stupid questions (who packed your bags, did you leave your bags unattended, what did you do with your bags since you finished packing) it was endless. She went to see what seemed to be her supervisor many times with our passports surely with the hope of delaying us more. But they seemed to tell her off and she finally let us go. She put a number on the back of our passport and after checking in our bags we got sent to the infamous (line 1) very strict bag searching security check. Rude staff there again, who will shamelessly open all your bags and go through all your stuff. We arrived 7 hours prior to our flight and were at the gate 30 minutes before boarding. What a joke.

✅ Trip Verified | Disrespect to high level among the security staff. I was not treated like a human, but rather a criminal. All I had was a short layover, and still stood in an interrogation with 3 different woman who were wielding their powers over me. It took over an hour to answer questions and un pack and repack my bags. I had good experiences previously, but honestly, that whole situation makes me not excited to travel back again.

✅ Trip Verified | The security is so rude and disrespectful. I arrived at the airport at 18:05 for a 19:35 flight, due to getting stuck in traffic for many hours (because of a holiday in Israel which I did not know about). I was really stressed that I was going to miss my flight. First, security acted like they had never seen dual passports in their life before (I have German and South African), then the head security lady came to ask me the most useless and pointless questions, stressing me out more about missing my flight. She was clearly having an ego trip and told me she won't speak to me until I calm down, while I was calm the whole time, I just did not know the answers to the questions she wanted (such as the name of the uncle of my friend - I do not speak Arabic so I cannot remember his strange name?). Then she was on the phone for ages, wasting my time, and came to ask me more useless questions like with who I stayed with and the names of other family members, asking me why I drove with the uncle instead of my friend (and not believing me when I said because my friend was working). I finally got her to let me through after showing her Whatsapp messages with my travel agent who was reasurring me I would still make my flight. I felt personally violated and disrespected. Then at security they pulled me aside the the extra intense security check. They ripped all of my personal belongings out with absolutely no care, my underwear everywhere, and my nice new handbags getting manhandled. I had packed everything so meticulously so that I could fit everything in and was left with my things strewn around and told to repack after about 30 minutes of them treating me like vermin. I had enjoyed Israel, but I will never be back due to the slowness and rudeness of the staff here.

✅ Trip Verified | I'm flying back with Air Canada via TLV Airport with my poor dog checked downstairs in a cargo. The Air Canada flight AC081 got 1 hr generously delayed. However, nobody bothered to notify us regarding the delay and I was forced to check in my dog in a cargo department as if now 3 hrs before the flight! This is absolutely unacceptable and inconsiderate from Air Canada crew as well as chaotic airport staff. While I'm on a plane, nobody seems to know when will we depart and the crew is extremely rude. Everyone making others at guilt, just so not to accept responsibility. Unfortunately, this is the cruel reality of super packed plane, delayed flight and very unpleasant and unprofessional team. Very disappointing

✅ Trip Verified | We were told we need to be at the airport 5 hours before our flight. We arrived from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv airport by train and took a 15 mins bus to terminal 1. The security check-in process at the departure door was surprisingly fast. And the bags checks were pretty fast too. They opened up a separate area for a faster bag check process. The whole process only took 45 mins and we have 4 hours now to kill at the airport. Note that this was a 10pm flight and we arrived at 6pm on Monday.

✅ Trip Verified | Just to counterbalance the other reviews. We had a 6.00am flight. We arrived at the airport at 2.45 and were completely through check-in and security by 3.30. We checked luggage. It would have been 20 minutes faster with just carry on.

✅ Trip Verified | First and foremost most of the staff firstly spoke only their language, if you are working in an international environment mostly an airport you are expected to speak to the passengers in the international language. And even after in speaking the the security staff that check the hand carry before the passport control they would respond in Hebrew as if that helps in providing information needed. The security was unreasonable, before even check-in to the counter there is a security that has a long line after that you have to spend time again on the check in counter but the worst part of is when you are entering the security check as they would look into your boarding pass and put you in a line where you have to wait based on the departure time of your flight. It’s unreasonable to be in a line that almost not move unless its 1.5 hrs before the boarding. The security staff are rude and not at all responsive to why there's a moving line and there's a line that is not moving at all. After that there is a random check that you have you bring out everything on your hand carry, remove shoes check every inch of what you have and worse part that they do is i have some chocolates coming from Tbilisi as i travel to Georgia before coming to Israel. The security officer poke all the chocolates that i have with a push pin which is very unhygienic as its from a cork board or where they pinch all this push pin in the area. I have traveled to almost every continent of the world but this airport would have been the worst airport staff I have every encountered.

✅ Trip Verified | Allow 5 hours to get through this airport. They tag anything that is not a standard wheel bag as oversized so every other passenger has to go through the over sizes luggage area. When I was there, the line was at least 50 people and there were 4 workers in the area. Three stood around talking while one worker worked through the line in the slowest possible manner I can imagine. I have been standing in the line for 30 minutes and there are still 10 people ahead of me. Check in was no different. There were only 4 people in front of me but it took 40 minutes to get me. I am anticipating security to be the same but since I have had so much time in this line, I figured I would write this review.

✅ Trip Verified | Tel Aviv should be renamed Tel Avoid! Staff are rude, not helpful. Try to avoid helping in any way. One occasion witnessed one person asking for help after they’ve checked through & was advised to go all the way back. Simply because the staff couldn’t understand English. Get some real workers in and be kind

Not Verified | The absolute worst airport I ever saw. We waited, like everyone, 2 hours for Check in, the staff were nasty and snobby.