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The mayor of Eilat, Meir Yitzhak-Halevy has joined those pressuring Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz and has called on him not to retreat from his original decision to allow El Al to operate many daily flights to the city. In the last week the President of the Hotels Association has also called on the Minister not to place limits on El Al.

The mayor of Eilat claimed in a letter sent to the Minister of Transport that by limiting the number of flights that El Al can operate into the city means that it won’t be possible to fully exploit the potential of the link to international flights that it operates. “This is an unprecedented revolution for the city of Eilat,” wrote Yitzhak-Halevy, praising the minister’s decision to allow El Al to fly to the city. “But there exists the fear that the revolution that we expected will lead to frustration.”

Yitzhak-Halevy referred to the intention of the Ministry of Transport to allow El Al to operate only two daily flights to Eilat, this on the background of the plea presented by the competitors Israir and Arkia to the high Court of Justice. According to Yitzhak-Halevy, the connection of Eilat to the international market will arrive at the expense of the citizens of Eilat, because it will be difficult for them to use El Al’s service if they only operate two flights daily.

 “The level of tourism potential and the increasing competition are important to me especially as I am Mayor of the city.”  He also wrote that in recent months he had met with with the Minister of Transport with the aim of discussing assistance in developing Eilat and promoting the tourism industry.

During the course of the meeting, Yitzhak-Halevy indicated that the number of flights is important, not less than the intense competition of the open skies policy. In this matter, he requested the intervention of the minister regarding cost of flights, with emphasis on providing benefits for the residents of Eilat.