Eilat Airport

Eilat Airport J. Hozman Airport שדה התעופה אילת مطار إيلات
IATA: ETH ICAO: LLET ETH Location of airport in Israel
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Israel Airports Authority
Serves	Eilat, Israel
Focus city for	Arkia Israel Airlines Israir Airlines
Elevation AMSL	42 ft / 13 m
Coordinates	29°33′30″N 34°57′32″E / 29.55833°N 34.95889°E / 29.55833; 34.95889
Website	iaa.gov.il
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 03/21 6,234 1,900 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 1,424,098 Aircraft movements 18,966
Source: Israel Airports Authority

Eilat Airport (Hebrew: שְׂדֵה הַתְּעוּפָה אֵילַת‎, Namal HaTe'ufa Eilat; Arabic: مطار إيلات‎‎), also known as J. Hozman Airport (IATA: ETH, ICAO: LLET), is an Israeli airport located in the city of Eilat, and named for Arkia Airlines founder Yakov Hozman (Jacob Housman). Eilat Airport is located in the central area of the city, next to Route 90 (The Arava Road). It mostly handles domestic flights to Tel Aviv and Haifa with international flights operating instead to Uvda International Airport, but a few international flights on aircraft that can handle the relatively short runway use Eilat as well.

The airport is expected to cease civilian operations by 2018 when Eilat's new international airport, Ramon Airport, should become operational.

Eilat Airport was established in 1949 by the Israel Air Force, following the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. During its early years, the airport aimed to establish a comprehensive set of connections to towns across the country, most notably with Tel Aviv and Haifa. Consequently, a regular route from Eilat to Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) was started. Soon after, a route to Haifa Airport became operational. In December 1950, following their establishment, Arkia Israel Airlines became the largest domestic operator at Eilat Airport, taking the position of the former companies Eilata and Aviron. To this day, they retain this position. Later, in 1964 the runway was expanded to 1500 m, and a passenger terminal was built. Five years later, the runway was further expanded increasing the length to 1900 m. In 1975, Eilat Airport started to attract Scandinavian airlines. The first international flight arrival to Eilat, of the Danish airline, Sterling Airlines landed in this year. Since then, many international routes have been established directly linking Eilat with Europe, however, the airport is still unable to handle landings of large aircraft which have to fly to Uvda International Airport.