The airport will be closed by 2018, with traffic transferred to Ben Gurion and Ein Shemer airports
The Israeli cabinet approved the plan to shut down Sde Dov Airport (SDV) in north Tel Aviv by the end of 2018 and turn the site over to housing construction.
Sde Dov Airport occupies 1,300 dunam (426 acres) along the coast in north Tel Aviv, including an 800-dunam (200-acre) small military airfield. Some 12,000 housing units are slated to be built on the site, as well as hotels along the Mediterranean beachfront, shopping malls and a seafront park.
According to the plan, domestic flights of light planes that now fly in and out of Sde Dov will be transferred to Ein Shemer, an airfield used at present for recreational aviation. Flights by the two Israeli airlines Arkia Airlines Ltd. and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. to Eilat will be transferred to Ben Gurion international Airport, using the area currently used by the Israel Air Force, which will transfer its operations there to the Negev.
