The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it lifted a ban on American carriers flying into Tel Aviv after reviewing Israeli measures to reduce security risks. Israeli officials had been trying to restore global air connections after U.S. and European regulators advised carriers to avoid Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday. The FAA extended the ban another 24 hours on Wednesday. Then, late Wednesday, the FAA said it canceled the ban. "Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the Government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation," the FAA said in a statement on its website. Israel's transportation minister said Israel made the Ovda Airport in southern Israel available to carriers that had halted traffic to Tel Aviv. Ovda, about 37 miles north of the beach resort city of Eilat, can handle international flights, but it is currently used primarily by charter airlines, bringing in tourists. No international carrier took up the offer to fly into the airport, a spokeswoman for the Israel Airport Authority said. Source: MarketWatch
