Despite the great promises, the Ilan and Assaf Ramon Airport is closed to international flights from the beginning of the Corona period.
This is despite the fact that many Israeli tourists have been flying abroad en masse for many months, alongside foreign tourists who have been coming to Israel since the beginning of the month via Ben Gurion Airport.
We examined why the airport, one of the major promises of the Israeli aviation industry, is still inactive, and why foreign tourists do not land alongside Israeli tourists taking off for various destinations abroad, as we saw before the Corona period. Health, and claimed that it had not established a corona testing outline that would allow an array of international flights to operate.
At the same time, the aviation industry is pointing the finger of blame at the Ministry of Tourism.
There, they claim, they did not act in time to get the airlines to fly to Eilat during the winter, a period when quite a few tourists from cold countries were supposed to arrive.
An airline from one of the Scandinavian countries recently considered arriving in Eilat, but the country's strict entry procedures and unwillingness to receive tourists in Eilat made it give up the move.
In talks with industry officials, they make it clear that the Ministry of Tourism did not prepare the foreign airlines, which have meanwhile chosen to fly to Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt and other neighboring countries, and now Eilat is not in the plans of those airlines that could bring many tourists to Israel.
"Maybe we could have prepared better. Unfortunately we missed it, and the upcoming winter season is already pretty dead in terms of foreign tourism to Eilat," senior officials in the Ministry of Tourism admit.
In addition, residents of Eilat are protesting the situation and claim that the state does not offer the incentives it offered before the Corona period - a few tens of euros per airline for every tourist who lands in Eilat.
The clarification of the details shows that the Ministry of Tourism is currently working to renew the budget for the issue.
Residents of Eilat and the surrounding area are also disappointed by the fact that they can not fly from the airport built near the city, and that they have to go all the way to Ben Gurion Airport, unlike in recent years, during which they could fly to European destinations at affordable prices.
It should be noted that the two offices are working to establish a system of tests that will address future demand for flights that will land at Ramon Airport.
