The Israeli Knesset has approved a bill that will keep Tel Aviv Sde Dov Airport open to civilian traffic through to 2019.
According to Globes, the bill, which was sponsored by Itzik Shmuli (Zionist Union) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home Party), was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of seventy parliamentarians during its final reading on Wednesday, March 22.
The Sde Dov law states that as long as the airport is used for aerial reconnaissance and landing for military aviation, so civil aviation will also continue. However, in adherence to an earlier High Court ruling, the current passenger terminal will be closed by the end of April 2017 with a new temporary facility to be erected within the current military area of the airfield. The transfer is to be completed by December of this year.
MPs had held off passing the bill in the hopes a deal could be reached between the Israeli state and 1,800 landowners seeking to demolish the downtown Tel Aviv airfield for new property development. When that failed, the Knesset's Interior Committee approved the bill.
The state will provide compensation to the landowners for the use of the land for civil aviation. This will be calculated according to the provisions of the Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance and the Acquisition for Public Purposes (Amendment of Provisions) Law.
MPs had argued the airfield was too important a facility to the southern Israeli port town of Eilat for its services to be withdrawn.
At present, Arkia Israeli Airlines (IZ, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) and Israir (6H, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion) are Sde Dov's only large-scale commercial operators offering multiple daily flights to and from Eilat J. Hozman.
