The Ministry of Transport issued a festive announcement yesterday evening, according to which a plan for the development of Haifa Airport has been approved. According to the announcement, the possibility of operating flights to various destinations abroad will be expanded, but an examination by Israel Hayom shows that there are several significant problems that will severely limit the destinations to which it will be possible to fly from Haifa.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Transport stated, "The government approved the development plan for Haifa International Airport, so that it will make it possible to expand its operations to additional international flights to additional countries in Europe and the Middle East, alongside domestic flights in Israel." Our investigation shows that the entire issue of parking, the terminal and other points at Haifa Airport is expected to be developed, but the airport's main problem has not yet been solved.
Medium-sized passenger planes will not be able to land in Haifa at this stage, Photo: Coco
Few airlines have operated and will operate direct flights from Haifa to Haifa for one reason - the runway at the airport is too short and cannot accommodate most passenger planes in the world today, including narrow-body Boeing 737, Airbus 320 and more.
This means that the only planes that will be able to take off and land at this airport are turboprop planes such as Dash8, planes whose flight ranges are very short and reach mainly nearby destinations such as Greece, Cyprus or Turkey, which is becoming much less relevant to Israelis during this period.
In addition, these are small planes that can accommodate far fewer passengers than the common planes found among most airlines currently operating from Israel and Israel. This means that the economic feasibility is far less cost-effective than operating larger planes that can accommodate at least 130 passengers.
Most foreign airlines do not own turboprops, all Israeli airlines have already sold their turboprops, so the chances of international flights operating in high numbers to and from Haifa airport, while the current runway length remains the same, are low.
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