Eilat Airport

Eilat Airport (J. Hozman Airport) נמל התעופה אילת مطار إيلات
IATA: ETH – ICAO: LLET ETH Location of airport in Israel
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Israel Airports Authority
Serves		Eilat, Israel
Location		Eilat, Israel
Focus city for		Arkia Israel Airlines Israir Airlines
Elevation AMSL		42 ft / 13 m
Coordinates		29°33′30″N 34°57′32″E / 29.55833°N 34.95889°E / 29.55833; 34.95889
Website		iaa.gov.il
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
03/21	6,234	1,900	Asphalt
Statistics (2010 - 2011)
Total Passengers 2011			1,400,000
Total Operations 2010			18,593

Eilat Airport (Hebrew: נמל התעופה אילת‎, Namal HaTe'ufa Eilat, Arabic: مطار إيلات‎), also known as J. Hozman Airport (IATA: ETH, ICAO: LLET), is an Israeli airport located in the city of Eilat. Eilat Airport is located in the central area of the city, next to Route 90 (The Arava Road). It mostly handles domestic flights to Tel Aviv and Haifa with international flights operating instead to Ovda International Airport, but a few international flights on aircraft that can handle the relatively short runway use Eilat as well.

The airport is expected to cease civilian operations by 2017 when Eilat's new international airport, Timna Airport, should become operational.^[1]

History

C-46 Commando 4X-ACT Eilata operated by El Al in Eilat Airport (~1952)

Eilat Airport was established in 1949 by the Israel Air Force, following the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. During its early years, the airport aimed to establish a comprehensive set of connections to towns across the country, most notably with Tel Aviv and Haifa. Consequently, a regular route from Eilat to Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) was started. Soon after, a route to Haifa Airport became operational. In December 1950, following their establishment, Arkia Israel Airlines became the largest domestic operator at Eilat Airport, taking the position of the former companies Eilata and Aviron. To this day, they retain this position. Later, in 1964 the runway was expanded to 1500 m, and a passenger terminal was built. Five years later, the runway was further expanded increasing the length to 1900 m. In 1975, Eilat Airport started to attract Scandinavian airlines. The first international flight arrival to Eilat, of the Danish airline, Sterling Airlines landed in this year. Since then, many international routes have been established directly linking Eilat with Europe, however, the airport is still unable to handle landings of large aircraft which have to fly to Ovda International Airport.^[2]

In the 1994 Peace Agreement between Israel and Jordan it was decided that operations were supposed to be transferred from Eilat Airport to Aqaba Airport. The original plan was to rename Aqaba Airport as Aqaba-Eilat Peace International Airport.^[3] The agreement was never followed, however, and an agreement between the two countries in March 1997, stipulated that domestic flights would continue to use Eilat Airport, whilst no further action to move international flights took place.^[4]

In August 2005, a Katyusha rocket fired from Jordan landed near a taxi traveling just 15 yards (14 m) from the airport perimeter fence.^[5] On August 8, 2013, the Israeli Military instructed the airport to cancel all landings and departures after a security assessment. Militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula had fired rockets towards the city in recent years, but it was not immediately clear if that was the reason for the closure.^[6]

The airport today

Today, Eilat Airport sustains peak loads concentrated into Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On Thursdays and Sundays, flights are handled in a period of a few hours in the mornings and on Saturdays only the evening hours are used. Often there are days when 10,000 passengers on 120 flights are channelled through the 2,800 m² terminal, counting as one of the highest peak loads worldwide in this category.^[7]

International passenger traffic decreased from magnitude of 20,000 in a year in late 2000s to 5,000 in a year in 2010s.^[8]

Although the airport is capable of handling Boeing 767 aircraft, for large numbers of these aircraft, significant investment would be needed. Consequently, the largest aircraft regularly flying to the airport are Boeing 757.^[7] The main problem at the airport is the lack of ramp space, with just two parking positions for large aircraft.^[7] As a result, El Al operates regular shuttle flights to Ben Gurion International Airport carrying passengers from around the world on 757s, 737s and ATRs.^[7]

The small size of the airport is perhaps best illustrated with the fact that a Boeing 757 cannot taxi past another aircraft to parking positions.^[7] As a result, controllers are responsible not only for ensuring that valuable space is utilised, but also ensuring that other aircraft are kept circling until larger aircraft are parked.^[7] Despite these limitations, the airport successfully handles ten to twenty times more traffic than airports of a comparable size.^[7] It is for this reason that plans to relocate the airport are so important in the short-term scale. In 2006, a NIS 5.5 million renovation programme of Eilat Airport's terminal and runway was undertaken, designed to sustain the airport until it is replaced in the near future.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.^[7] 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.^[7]

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.^[11] 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.

Airlines and destinations

Eilat Airport chart

Statistics

See also

• Eilat
• Ovda International Airport

References

External links

Media related to Eilat Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Airport information for LLET at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
• Airport information for ETH / LLET at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
• Current weather for LLET at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for ETH / LLET at Aviation Safety Network

v t e Israel Airports Authority Airports Ben Gurion International Eilat Haifa Herzliya Ovda Rosh Pina Sde Dov Border terminals with Egypt Nitzana Taba with Gaza Strip Karni Kerem Shalom with Jordan Allenby Bridge Arava Jordan River Defunct or former properties Jerusalem Int'l Airport Kiryat Shmona Airport Ophira Int'l Airport Rafah Crossing

v t e Israeli airports Italics indicate airports located in the Israeli-occupied territories. International Eilat Eilat-Ovda Haifa Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion Domestic Bar Yehuda Be'er Sheva Ein Yahav Fik Herzliya Megiddo Mitzpe Ramon Rosh Pina Ben Ya'akov Sde Dov Yotvata Military Ramat David Hatzor Hatzerim Tel Nof Ovda Sde Dov Haifa Ramon Nevatim Palmachim Former Jerusalem Atarot Kiryat Shmona Planned Timna Airport