(JNS) – The Israeli government on Sunday approved the construction of an international airport in the Negev Desert, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The airport, which will be located at the Ziklag archaeological site, 17 miles northwest of Beersheva between the cities of Netivot and Rahat, will be a “tremendous engine” for the development of the Negev, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The move will boost “employment, accessibility and tourism alongside complementary infrastructure, such as roads and railways, as well as various ancillary industries and businesses that spring up around an airport,” the prime minister told reporters at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting.
The premier thanked Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and “southern man” Almog Cohen, a former deputy minister in the PMO, who he said “never stops urging me to advance this tremendous engine for developing the Negev.”
“They all worked hand in hand to bring this important decision to a government vote today. I instructed that it be advanced as quickly as possible, and with God’s help, that’s what we’ll do,” said Netanyahu.
The government also gave the green light for advancing plans to build an airport in the north, in the Jezreel Valley near Ramat David Airbase.
“Only in this way will we be able to provide a real solution to the growing demand from tourists and the air traffic of many millions who arrive in Israel each year—and many more who will come—as well as Israeli citizens who fly abroad,” Netanyahu said in remarks to the press.
“These are two truly enormous growth engines for the State of Israel— in the north and in the south. Both will be established in parallel as quickly as possible,” the premier vowed.
The future airports are intended to alleviate congestion at the Jewish state’s main international gateway, Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, located some 55 miles and 70 miles away, respectively.
Israel’s main travel hub has an annual passenger capacity of 40 million. Some 24 million passengers traveled through the airport in the record-breaking year for tourism in 2019, including over 4.5 million tourists.