JERUSALEM, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel will set up a second major international airport in the north of the country, a local news portal reported Wednesday.
The new airport is planned to be built next to the Ramat David settlement and adjacent to an Israeli Air Force base, according to financial website Calcalist.
The need to build another international airport arose more than a decade ago because of the continued growth in the passenger traffic through the Ben Gurion Airport in the center of the country.
The congestion at Ben Gurion has intensified significantly with the implementation of the open skies policy in 2014, which has increased the number of airlines operating at the airport.
The Ben Gurion Airport was originally built for a capacity of 12 million people a year. The government once said a second airport will be built when this number is hit.
The airport is expected to handle 23 million passengers in 2018, and the number is likely to rise to more than 25 million in 2019.
A government team examined a few other alternatives, including the Nevatim air base area in the southern Negev Desert, but decided on the Ramat David site in the north.
The team preferred Ramat David over Nevatim mainly because a northern airport would serve 28 percent of the country's population, compared with only 14 percent if it were to be built in the south.
Environmental organizations, however, object the northern option citing nature conservation concerns.
But the municipality of Be'er Sheva, the largest city in the Negev, demands to build the airport in the south to help develop the area.
Meanwhile, Israeli Air Force claims that civil aviation in the south would disrupt military aircraft operations and training in the area.
