Egypt’s Red Sea border town of Taba has become a key transit point for travelers leaving Israel after the closure of Israeli airspace amid the escalating US-Israeli war on Iran, driving a surge in short hotel stays and cross-border traffic in South Sinai.
Hotel bookings in Taba jumped on Tuesday as hundreds of travelers crossed from Israel seeking temporary accommodation before continuing their journeys abroad, tourism investors in the region said.
Sami Suleiman, head of the Taba and Nuweiba Investors Association, told Al Manassa that most reservations were not traditional tourist visits but brief stopovers lasting between one and three days.
“These are transit occupancies,” Suleiman said. “People arrive from Israel, stay for a short time and then move on to other destinations.”
The rush follows the suspension of operations at Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, after Israeli and US strikes on Iran triggered retaliatory attacks across the region and widespread disruption to aviation across the Middle East.
The closure has stranded tens of thousands of passengers and forced airlines and governments to explore alternative routes through neighboring countries, including Egypt.
Sinai emerges as land gateway
The Taba crossing between Egypt and Israel has seen growing traffic as travelers seek to exit Israel overland.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged Americans seeking to leave the country to use buses organized by Israel’s tourism ministry to reach the Taba border crossing.
Russia is also preparing to evacuate dozens of its citizens stranded in Israel through Egypt, a move expected to increase activity in South Sinai and potentially in Sharm El-Sheikh as an alternative air gateway while Israeli airspace remains largely closed.
Israeli authorities are meanwhile developing a program called “Lion’s Wings” aimed at helping Israelis stranded abroad to return to Israel through neighboring countries.
According to an Israeli government statement issued Monday, “Lion’s Wings” includes the flights landing at Taba Airport in Egypt followed by a direct land transfer to the border crossing with Israel.
The Israeli National Security Council advised Israelis returning through Egypt to travel directly from the airport to the border crossing without remaining in the country due to a Level 4 travel warning.
Israelis are being urged to strictly adhere to safety precautions, including concealing anything that could identify them as Israeli or Jewish and avoiding posting updates or personal information on social media.
The program has not yet begun operating, but some Israelis have already started organizing privately arranged routes via airports in Taba or Sharm El-Sheikh before continuing by road to Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli airlines are using nearby destinations as they attempt to bring back Israeli passengers stranded abroad.
Arkia has begun operating special flights between several European cities—including Athens, Rome, Larnaca and Sofia—and Taba, while Israir said it plans to launch recovery flights from six European destinations including Prague, Budapest and Sofia.
Israel’s flag carrier El Al said it was seeking approval to operate charter flights from Europe to airports bordering Israel, including Taba in Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan, to help return Israeli passengers whose flights were cancelled.
El Al estimates that roughly 40,000 of its customers are currently stranded abroad, while another 34,000 tourists remain in Israel.
Ben Gurion Airport said it could reopen in an “extremely limited format” as early as Wednesday evening, with operations expanding gradually depending on the security situation.
Tourism hit despite sudden demand
Despite the spike in occupancy in Taba hotels, tourism officials say the surge reflects emergency travel rather than a recovery in Egypt’s tourism sector.
A member of the board of the Chamber of Tourism Companies told Al Manassa that new bookings across Egypt dropped by as much as 90% following the US–Israeli attack on Iran.
Tourism investors in Taba, Nuweiba and Dahab say repeated regional shocks have left them under mounting financial strain, prompting them to file a formal complaint in March 2025 against the Labor Ministry’s Emergency Aid Fund for Workers over delays in paying government support meant to offset losses from the Gaza war, which drove a sharp drop in occupancy.
The fund refused to accept applications for the “tenth tranche” of aid for workers at hotels in Taba, Dahab and Nuweiba, arguing the Israeli war on Gaza had stopped, even as investors demanded support continue until the sector fully recovered.
“This is not tourism returning,” Suleiman told Al Manassa about the recent surge in occupancy. “It is people passing through because the region’s airports have shut down.”
Sinai has seen similar waves of short-term transit stays seen during previous escalations in the region, when hotels were used as temporary stopovers by travelers navigating sudden aviation disruptions. In June, a 12-day war between Iran and Israel triggered a similar wave of mass flight, with hotels in the area used as temporary transit stops.
