RAMALLAH: Israel has launched a scheme allowing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to fly abroad from an airport in the Negev desert.
A tourist group from the West Bank, consisting of doctors, pharmacists and their families, joined Monday’s inaugural flight from Ramon Airport to Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.
The flight for 24 Palestinians from the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem in the West Bank took off toward Cyprus from Ramon Airport, located in the Negev region in southern Israel, according to the Israel Airports Authority.
A spokesperson from COGAT — the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories — confirmed Palestinians were aboard Monday’s flight to Larnaca.
Ghassan Olyan, coordinator of the Israeli government’s activities in the Palestinian territories, said that the travel of Palestinians from the West Bank through an Israeli airport “is historic and unprecedented. It was a dream and became a reality.”
However, the launch of the Palestinian tourist flight service from the West Bank to Turkey has been postponed due to delays in preparations, which are underway to operate two flights per week from Ramon Airport to Istanbul and Antalya.
Flights to the two Turkish cities are expected to be launched next month, and services to Dubai and Sharm El-Sheikh are likely to begin gradually.
According to Israeli sources, the Turkish airline Pegasus and the Turkish company Atlas will operate flights on an Airbus A321 plane, with flights departing twice a week. The plane can carry 220 passengers.
Israel opened Ramon Airport — considered the second largest Israeli airport after Ben Gurion — in 2019 at a cost of $500 million.
Israelis still do not prefer to travel through Ramon Airport because of its location, which is 340 km from Jerusalem.
More than 1 million Palestinians travel to Jordan annually, several of whom stop to visit relatives or complete business in Jordan. Others pass through, returning from other countries.
In the absence of an airport for Palestinians in the West Bank and a minimal number of them traveling through Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, Queen Alia International Airport and Jordan remain the gateway to the world for Palestinians, including President Mahmoud Abbas. His private plane is perched in one of its airports.
The Palestinian Authority rejected the idea of Palestinians traveling through Ramon Airport, but Palestinians believe the authority’s refusal to use the airport for travel was based purely on economic reasons.
The Palestinian Authority, however, says that it is a sovereign matter and that no coordination has been made.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Abbas during his last meeting in Ramallah about Israel’s intention to allow Palestinians to travel through Ramon Airport.
The meeting took place before US President Joe Biden visited Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Palestinians in the West Bank — most residents of East Jerusalem and a small number of the Gaza Strip — travel through Jordan’s King Hussein Bridge.
The bridge is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. except on Fridays and Saturdays, when it remains open only until noon.
Jordan received $20 million from the US in exchange for increasing the bridge’s operating period from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and has demanded another $20 million in return for operating it around the clock, a high-ranking Palestinian security source confirmed to Arab News.
Economists say that replacing travel through Jordan with Ramon Airport may cause significant losses to the Jordanian economy.
It is expected that the number of travelers through Jordan might decrease by 50 percent after the official operation of the airport.
Suleiman Jamhour, a tourism and travel agent in Ramallah, told Arab News that he expects West Bank travelers to prefer to travel through Ramon Airport for several reasons, the most important of which is that tickets will be cheaper than via Amman as travel taxes in Israel are lower.
Also, large numbers of Palestinian political activists and former prisoners are prohibited from entering or traveling through Jordan for security reasons.
“Instead of staying in Jordan for two days back and forth, travelers going through Ramon Airport will save time and money,” said Jamhour, who expects that Jordan will suffer huge economic losses due to Palestinians being allowed to travel through Ramon Airport.
Palestinian travelers who do not hold Jordanian citizenship pay $14 in entry fees to Jordan. This amounts to $154 million in annual revenue for the Jordanian transportation and tourism sectors.
Jamhour estimates that Jordanian airlines — which target the Palestinian market directly — and the entire Jordanian transportation and tourism sectors could lose more than two-thirds of their customers.
Between 3,000-5,000 Palestinian passengers travel daily between the West Bank and Jordan.
Mohammed Youssef, a clothes merchant from Ramallah who travels frequently to Turkey via Jordan, told Arab News: “I think the procedures for traveling through Ramon Airport will be easier than traveling through Jordan. So, I would prefer to travel through Ramon Airport to save money, time and effort.”
Youssef said that he would prefer traveling through Ramon Airport even if the cost were higher than doing so through Jordan.
In addition to the high costs of travel, Youssef said that Jordanian authorities make it difficult for Palestinians with their travel procedures, which can often double the time needed to reach the destination.
