Jordan has filed a complaint with the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization.
Jordanian officials have said the operations at an expanded Timna airport will affect takeoffs and landings at Aqaba’s airport.
Currently,
Israel has an airport near Eilat.
Jordan has an airport near Aqaba.
There are only 4 air miles (6 km) between the two ports. The distance by sea between the Port of Eilat and the Port of Aqaba is 10 nautical miles (roughly 11.5 statute miles).
The two ports are so close together that most area maps put one almost on top of the other.
BY COMPARISON, the distance between
JFK and LaGuardia is about 12 miles (19 km); shuttle services connect the two airports
O'Hare and Midway is 31 miles (50 km); the two are connected by local rail
Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood and Miami is 27 miles (48km)
LAX and John Wayne is 40 miles (64 km); shuttle service connects the two airports
. Timna's airport is north of Eilat.
The King Hussein International Airport is north of Aqaba..
The Timna airport, in place but to be expanded to accommodate wide-body planes, is 6.22 miles (10 km) from Jordan's King Hussein International.
Jordan is understandably concerned but the Timna Ramon airport was in place for some time sans problems.
Israel is planning to spend NIS 1.95 billion, and even though that's Israeli shekels, that still is a lot of money, especially for a country that is having budget problems.
It would seem reasonable - and that may be the main problem - that whichever airport now serves wide-body aircraft should be the - dare I write it? - a REGIONAL airport for both Israel and Jordan (or Jordan and Israel).
Since both Timna and King Hussein are international airports - that is, they have customs, passport checks, etc. already in place - it would seem logical that instead of enhancing the existing Timna airport to build a light rail from airport to airport.
Timna still would serve domestic flights and "narrow-body" jets from Europe, but any wide-biddy aircraft would use King Hussein.
Israel and Jordan could split revenue based on passenger destination and origination. Israel and Jordon could jointly staff Customs and passport checks - incoming passenger would go to the left for Jordan and to the right for Israel (or vice versa).
The inter-airport shuttle (light rail) could originate and terminate in secure areas of the terminals, assuring that Israelis don't wander around Jordan with out the proper papers and Jordanians don't tour Israel sans authorizing documentation.
Even if Israel paid for the tracks between the two terminals, it still probably would cost less than the estimated cost for the Timna expansion.
An aside: There already is scheduled airline service between Lod (TLV) and Amman (AMM).
It seems this would be a win-win for both countries.
But it's the Middle East, so . . .
