The Future
Since the beginning of the 1990s the authorities in Eilat have considered relocating the airport, approximately 20 km north of Eilat, to the Ora Well area near Be'er Ora. There were numerous reasons behind this idea. Primarily, the fact that safety would be improved as in its current location, there is the chance of aircraft crashing into buildings in the city. Other reasons were the pure value of the land which the airport occupies, and the fact that the airport is dividing the city of Eilat into two parts with the hotels and tourist areas on one side, and the residential buildings on the other.
On July 24, 2011 the Israeli cabinet approved the construction of Israel's second international airport to be built in Timna, 18 kilometers north of Eilat. The airport will be named after the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and his son Assaf Ramon, who died six years later when his F-16 fighter jet crashed over the West Bank. The new airport in Timna will consolidate the commercial aviation operations taking place in Eilat and Ovda which together serve about 1.5 million passengers per year.
Read more about this topic: Eilat Airport
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