Farewell to Eilat's fascinating city airport
The new Ramon Airport has been three months in operation. He replaced in the Israeli seaside resort of Eilat, two older airports. Especially the J. Hozman Airport, in the city centre, miss a lot of airplane fans.
The location of Eilat's is pretty special: The 50‘000 inhabitants in the city, is located on the southern tip of Israel, in a 15-kilometre-wide strip, surrounded by the Islamic countries of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It is also Israel's only access to the Red sea and established himself, therefore, far beyond the country's borders as a popular Destination for beach holidays. Eilat had, therefore, equal to two airports, which have now been replaced by the opening of the new Ilan and Assaf Ramon International Airport.
One of the old airports had aircraft photographer as a bead after the founder of the Arkia Airlines notified city airport, the J. Hozman Airport. The trend also went in the small airport, without a trace, which was built in 1949 in the then rural beach promenade. In the following years, Eilat has experienced a tourist Boom, but the airport was poorly prepared: Its 1900 metres Short track restricted the aircraft and destination choice considerably, and only five Parking positions comprehensive advance gave the air traffic controllers, some gray hair. They had not only the normal Traffic, staggering in the air, but to send the planes, often in queues, to ensure that there is never too many of them at the same time stood on the ground.
International flights went to Ovda
Due to all these limitations have been handled from the Eilat Airport, almost exclusively domestic flights. International Airlines, headed for the about 45 kilometers North of the military airport of Ovda with its longer runway, but also the small civilian advance with its five Parking positions, and the makeshift Terminal was not expanded just generous. Only good 1600 civilian flights and 209‘000 passengers were transported annually – the small city airport came to 20‘000 flights and 1.6 million travellers.
Already for a long time, there were plans, the Region with a completely new airport equip. Only had been provided for in the peace Treaty with Jordan of 1994, to take advantage of the only 7 kilometers from the airport of the Jordanian seaside resort of Aqaba for him in the Aqaba-Eilat Peace International Airport to rename. But the Flare-up of renewed tensions in the Region have made peace airport soon end and Israel pursued henceforth, a solution of their own.
Also stopgap for Tel Aviv
In September 2017 20 kilometers was completed to the North of Eilat, the Ilan and Assaf Ramon Airport – it is named after the Israeli astronaut who died in the disaster of the space Shuttle Columbia, and his son, who was six years later in the crash of an F-16 fighter jets his life. 21. January 2019 celebrated the prestigious Ramon airport with some delay, finally its official opening. He waits with an architecturally pleasing Terminal and offers enough space.
Its 3.6-kilometre-long runway is designed not only to tourist wide-body jets, but serves another purpose: Should have closed the main airport in Israel (Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv) because of attacks, security concerns or an accident, has the country now have an alternative airport with sufficient capacity, to the entire Israeli Airline to be incorporated fleet. 1.8 million passengers it can handle the new airport at present, according to the further stages of development, it should be up to 4.5 million. After on 18. March Eilat's town airport and 31. In March, the former international Ovda Airport was closed, the handles of the Ramon airport, all flights in the Region.
Subsidies from the state
Critics wonder, however, whether the Region of Eilat required a large airport. Your visit to a numbers break with each new war for Israel again – for the last time by over two-thirds of battles in the Gaza strip 2014. In order to preserve the tourist town in front of the handle Israel's government, therefore, in 2016, of an unconventional: they promised each Airline that was headed for the seaside resort, a premium of 80 EUR per passenger. The boost in the traffic again, and cried, specially the low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air on the Plan.
But in the long term, the success of this project is controversial. On the one hand, the heavily subsidised flights to attract many more passengers, the Eilat's airports only because of the cheap Tickets to operate, but then by land to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or even Jordan and Egypt trips. On the Other hand, the fact that the prices in Eilat are themselves unchanged high careworn, a variety of vacationers from Europe and Russia, lured by the cheap tickets to hope on a beach at discount prices had many of them come a second Time.
White elephant on the Red sea?
The subsidy policy is, in part, led to the new airport, but perhaps it has maneuvered itself into a cul-de-SAC: a number of disgruntled cheap flights-tourists have turned Eilat anyway the back and not cut in the subsidies, the operation of the resort for many Airlines, and certainly not lucrative. Accordingly, the local media see the danger that the prestigious new Ramon airport, could be oversized for the Region's abundant to ruin an Investment, a so-called white elephant is.
One thing is clear: Such spectacular approaches such as the J. Hozman Airport, the new airport offers. Because all of the approaches to the city's airport from Tel Aviv along the run from the dead sea to Eilat on the border with Jordan, as you delve deeper and deeper into an increasingly narrow area in Israel corridor. Eilat is only in the visual approach control, up to 90 per cent from the sea. The planes arrive from the North, flying at a height of 300 meters, directly above the airport, and then follow – hemmed in between the hills in the West and the border in the East, over the sea, a reversal of the curve directly in the final approach.
Increased Safety
The special location of Eilat's in the midst of the wary eyed neighbouring countries to hide the never-quite – in particular, when a military C-17's flying in close proximity to Eilat over, to land just over the border in Aqaba. Also, every ten meters at Eilat's airport fence mounted motion detector witnesses of a tense security situation. As you can see at the bus stop often, soldiers in full combat gear.
In the above image gallery to see shots from the old J. Hozman Airport.
This article by Tis Meyer and Jürgen Trautwein comes from our Partner, Jetstream international aviation magazine. Subscribe here.