Following concerns over air traffic safety, expressed by Jordan Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC), from the construction of an Israeli international airport near the coastal city of Aqaba, Israel said it opened talks with CARC to resolve Jordan's misgivings.
Earlier this year Jordan filed a complaint with the United Nations regarding the construction of the airport at Timna, near the southern Israeli city of Eilat. Jordanian Transport Minister Lina Shbeeb said recently that the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization has begun to investigate the complaint. The CARC complained that the airport is not compliant with the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation and specified public safety requirements to be followed for new airport constructions.
Scheduled to open by the end of 2016, the airport at Timna, outside the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, will be 10 km (6 miles) northwest of King Hussein international Airport serving Aqaba - the Jordanian port facing Eilat across the Red Sea gulf.
Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz noted that his ministry was well aware of the worries expressed by CARC that the proximity could spell dangerous disruptions to Jordan's air corridors. Katz added that "We are, in coordination with various agencies, handling contacts with them discreetly, and the fact is that construction is progressing and the airport will function."
