Israel opens new airport to boost Eilat tourism, provide wartime back-up

Israel opened a new international airport outside its Red Sea resort of Eilat Monday, hoping to boost winter tourism from Europeans and provide an alternative for times of conflict to its main gateway in Tel Aviv. Abutting the Jordanian border some 19 km north of Eilat, Ilan and Asaf Ramon Airport will replace the city's cramped municipal airport as well as Ovda, an Israeli desert airbase that also accommodates civilian traffic. The single-runway Ramon is designed for wide-body planes and an annual capacity of 2.5m passengers. Ramon is also designed to take any planes re-routed from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv - a lesson of the 2014 Gaza war, when foreign carriers briefly halted flights there because of Palestinian rocket fire. <br/>