Israel opened new Eilat Ramon airport

Israeli official on Monday opened the new Eilat Ramon airport which will serve the resort city of Eilat. The officials are hoping that the new airport will boost tourism in the city and will also be an alternative of entering the country besides Ben Gurion Tel Aviv Airport.

New Eilat Ramon airport it’s located about 19 kilometers North of Eilat and had a construction cost of about 500 million dollars.

The airport has a single runway with a length of 3600 meters, with capabilities of handling also wide-body aircraft. The parking spots can accommodate up to 17 aircraft, both widebodies and smaller turboprop aircraft.

Ramon airport will also take over civilian operations from Ovda airport, which is a military base that has also a civil terminal.

Airport officials are hoping of annual traffic of up to 2,5 million passengers. Besides traffic directed to Eilat, they are saying that the new airport can boost also tourism in the region.

Close to Eilat, there is Wadi Rum, one of the top attractions in Jordan and also the ancient city of Petra is somewhat closer than from Amman.

Budget-carriers such as Ryanair and Wizz Air are dominating the market in the region after the authorities decided to offer airline carriers a fee of up to 60 EUR for every foreign passenger that they are transporting to the destination. These meant that airlines offered cheaper plane tickets and tourism flourished in the city.