Zohar Blumenkrantz: Chief Rabbi Amar allows Shabbat work at Ben-Gurion Airport
Talkback
Title:Calm down
Name:Jerusalem Shmuel
City: JerusalemState: ISRAEL
The issuing of a "religous excemption" was a bureacratic manuver caused by Israeli politics. Obviously if a Orthodox Rabbi issued the ruling he was convinced that lives were in danger if the work was not done.

Thats my take anyway.