[ad_1]
The culmination of the inauguration of Ramon International Airport near Eilat this week was an Arkia airliner coming from Tel Aviv and landing.
But the fact is that it will take almost a year before commercial flights begin, and even there the risk remains that the state-of-the-art facility of 1.8 billion shekels ($ 500 million) will become an airport far too big for the city that it serves, warn some sources in the aviation industry.
Ramon will have the capacity to handle 2.5 million pbadengers a year and 20 take-offs and landings per hour, including a runway capable of accommodating the Boeing 747. Part of this extra capacity is due to a decision taken during the Gaza war in 2014 to make Ramon Airport Israel rescue if Ben-Gurion International Airport is to be temporarily closed.
But the real argument in favor of building such a gigantic establishment is the badumption that the huge growth of international tourism to Eilat as a winter escape will continue. Over the past six months, arrivals at Ovda Airport, near Eilat, have jumped 73% to 63,000, and next winter is expected to reach that pace.
Eilat is back on the tourism map after many years of lean cows following the decision of the Ministry of Tourism to subsidize airlines up to 60 euros per overseas pbadenger during the high season winter. But we do not know what would happen if the government decided that the subsidies were not worth it.
"It would not become a white elephant but a small white elephant that would only be used for much of the year by Israeli airlines," said a source familiar with the issue who asked not to not be named. "In winter, only a few airlines would continue without subsidies."
Others have warned that even with grants, most overseas visitors to Eilat are on time. They choose Eilat because of low, subsidized airfares, but then discover that prices in the city itself are high – so they do not come back. Ultimately, critics say, subsidies will stop generating enough traffic.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz has promised, albeit without enthusiasm, that his ministry will subsidize landing fees in Ramon for the first three years of operations, an amount that equates to $ 3000 per flight. Even if the department gets help without the pbadenger subsidies, it will not be enough to attract new airlines.
Ramon's short-term problem remains his date of opening. Katz promised two and a half years ago that the facility would be open for its first commercial flights in April 2017.
Sources told TheMarker that despite the pressure to open Ramon as quickly as possible, they do not see a departure date for international flights until March 2019 – and possibly in December 2018 for flights servants. The reason is the long run-in period of the airport to test its operations.
"The airport requires 480 processes, some simple, such as the examination of the truck that will remove garbage from the airfield, but there are also more complex, such as the sorting system suitcases between security and pbadengers "said a source at the Airport Authority of Israel.
The result will be much less traffic to Eilat during the next winter season. Airlines that have already sold tickets can easily change the airport from Ovda to Ramon, but airlines that have not started to do so can not sell them. at all.
TheMarker learned that EasyJet and British Airways had had discussions with the Ministry of Tourism to inaugurate their first routes to Eilat next winter, but without an airport they will have to wait until 2019-2020.
[ad_2]
Source link
