Israel to build new international airport near Eilat

The government is expected to approve a proposal by Transportation and Road Safety Minister Yisrael Katz to build a new airport in the Timna Valley, in southern Israel, 30 km north of Eilat. The proposed Ramon Airport would cater to international and domestic flights and would replace the smaller southern airports of Eilat and Ovda.

The proposal is backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is likely to receive a unanimous vote. It would be funded directly by the Israel Airports Authority, rather than the Finance Ministry. Additional capital could also come from the private sector as well as the sale of the land upon which the Eilat Airport currently stands. The land belongs to Israel's Lands Administration and would be converted into housing and commercial property.

The cost of building the new airport is expected to be about NIS 1.5 billion ($442 million) and construction is expected to last three years. It is estimated that 1.5 million people would pass through the new airport each year, three times the current passenger flow at Eilat's airport.

Plans to set up a new international airport were previously discussed in 2009 but were put on hold. The new plan builds upon that original proposal, adding specific planning guidelines and speeding up necessary bureaucratic procedures.

A spokesman for the Transportation Ministry said that Katz's proposal stemmed from “an urgent national requirement to set up an additional international airport in Israel, one which will complement Ben Gurion International Airport.”

The number of passengers passing through Ben Gurion Airport, in the center of the country, increases by 3 to 5 percent each year, Transportation Ministry data shows.

In 2010, 11,485,509 international passengers passed through Ben Gurion Airport, and a further 674,830 passengers traveled in or out on domestic flights.

Before settling on Timna, the government originally considered building the airport on the Malhat Evrona Nature Reserve north-east of Eilat. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which balked at that proposal, heralded Katz's new plan. “The original location for the new airport, Malhat Evrona, was highly susceptible to environmental hazards,” the authority said in a statement. “Fortunately, this location was ruled out due to our objections. We definitely approve of the alternative suggestion for setting up the new airport in Timna.”

In conjunction with the new airport initiative, the government will discuss other plans to further the development of Eilat's inner city, including transferring Eilat's port to another location, clearing its southern beach strip, adding hotels and providing a railway line to and from the city.

Netanyahu has given officials the go-ahead to explore development initiatives presented by Eilat's municipality. He also placed special emphasis on the need to speed up the building of Israel's border fence with Egypt in an effort to reduce the number of infiltrators making their way into Israel.

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