No. 1361: New airport in Israel!

No. 1361:
New airport in Israel!

OPEN IN APRIL: Ramon International Airport located in the Negev three mil north of Eilat, and is scheduled to open in April next year.

Retrieved from the newspaper day.

ISRAEL Israel opens soon a new major airport just off the holiday resort Eilat. But Norwegian tour operators have not discovered the opportunity.
The new airport in southern Israel will be officially opened in April next year and will replace Eilat airport, located in the city center.

Eilat is located at the southernmost point in Israel, on the Red Sea and is the country's main tourist magnet. This is a paradise especially for divers, and the road is not long to cut city of Petra in Jordan. There are also good bus service to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem. Therefore expects Israel that the new airport will provide a significant increase in tourism to the area.

Here is the architects' video presentation of the airport:



Three mil from Eilat
The new Ramon International Airport is located in Timna valley in the Negev desert, about three mil north of Eilat. This is one of the most beautiful and most modern airports in the Middle East. It is named after Ilan Ramon, who was Israel's first astronaut who died in 2003 in the American space shuttle Columbia.

The total cost of the airport is estimated at around $ 436 million (3.5 billion Norwegian kroner). The runway is 3.5 kilometers long, so that it can accommodate large aircraft.

Ramon airport will initially handle two million passengers a year, but the capacity is doubled already in 2018.

The airport will be used in all domestic traffic to and from Eilat and the increasing number of European budget airlines.

Also read: More and more people are buying "cottage" in Israel

norwegian
The Norwegian airline Norwegian currently flies to Israel. They have direct flights from Copenhagen to Tel Aviv twice a week.

- Does Norwegian no plans to make the new airport to one of their destinations?

- There are no plans now to expand the offer we have to Israel just with more direct routes, beyond what we have to Tel Aviv. But we do not exclude that it may be necessary in future, communications director Lasse Sandakerveien-Nielsen Dagen.


EILAT: It is not long way to Eilat on the Red Sea from the new airport.
Ryanair
Another low-cost carrier that has routes to Israel from several European cities, is Ryanair. They fly including Ovda Airport, which is the second international airport in Israel. It is located 60 kilometers north of Eilat.

Ryanair has announced that they will create routes to the new airport, but it is not known whether the company plans to fly directly to Israel from Norwegian cities.

Apollo
Among the major tour operators in Norway, it is small with thoughts of land on Ramon International Airport.

- Unfortunately, we have no plans to launch charter flights to Eilat at the moment. But the goal is always to meet customer demand. If people wish for trips to Eilat again, it will of course be appropriate for us, says communications manager Beatriz Rivera in Apollo.

She points out that supply and demand are closely related.

- We see that travel trends are changing, so one should not disregard that also Eilat and other exciting destinations coming back, she says.

winger
Kommunikasjonsrådgiver Sophie Frisholm Damsund in Winger said that although the new airport in southern Israel looks stylish, it is not realistic to start charter flights to Eilat when it opens.

- Israel is certainly an exciting destination, so it is not impossible that we at least put up liner packages at a later date. Then we can be more flexible, since we work with actors like SAS and Norwegian, said Frisholm Damsund.

Star Tour
Temareiser, Star Tours subsidiary, offers some trips to Israel.

- We offer a new journey to Israel in the spring of 2017, and it goes to Tel Aviv. At present there are no plans for Eilat. But it can certainly change in the future, says David Karlsson Temareiser.

Si-Reiser
CEO Aud Kindervåg Halsne Si-Reiser is excited which international routes added to the new airport outside Eilat.

- We will assess whether it may be appropriate for us to use it, or sending one of our direct winter to Eilat, says Kindervåg Halsne.