45-minute flight to Eilat, 45 minutes in traffic jams
The southern city's new airport is expected to open by Passover, but its location outside the busy city and a lack of prepared infrastructure has left the mayor pleading for help from the Ministry of Transport.
Eilat's new, modern Ramon Airport is set to open by April, but those who fly the 45 minutes from Tel Aviv are expected to run into delays when they exit the terminal.
Contrary to the currently operating Eilat airport, which is located inside the city, the Ramon Airport is to be 19 km north.
When the new airport was announced, the Ministry of Transport promised a light rail to carry passengers to and from the city. However, it has come to light that the system will not be set up for years.
Eilat's current airport (Photo: Yair Sagi)
Eilat's Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi recently wrote to Transport Minister Yisrael Katz on the subject. The mayor asked Katz to intervene and urgently widen Highway 90 to prepare for the increase in traffic.
"There is already gigantic transportation chaos at the entrance to the city today, with traffic jams on weekends, on vacations and on holidays," Yitzhak Halevi wrote. "If dramatic transportation improvement doesn't take place before the airport's opening, the chaos will become intolerable and will severely damage the quality of life of the tourists and residents."
According to data from the Eilat Municipality, it takes ten to 20 minutes to enter the city. The new airport is forecasted to extend this to 45 minutes, the same amount of time as the flight from Tel Aviv.
One potential solution is laying rail lines to Eilat, which the ministry is continuing to promote. But in the interim, the municipality is seeking the removal of traffic circles at the entrance to the city and the relocation of the police and customs checkpoint, which also hinders traffic. Another infrastructure improvement is the demarcation of separate lanes for travel to and from the city and the airport.
The Ministry of Transport commented that they were working on a plan whose planning phase was to be completed by the end of the year and whose construction phase would be "a few months." However, they refused to say that the improvements would be completed before Ramon Airport opens.
