The Israel Airports Authority has issued a tender to survey possible locations for a new international airport to supplement the Ben Gurion International Airport.

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The authority is worried that within the next few years, the Ben Gurion International Airport will be operating at full capacity, which is 20 million travelers a year, including domestic flights.

Over 16 million passengers passed through through Ben Gurion Airport in 2015. According to officials in the Airports Authority, the recently-implemented open skies policy helped increase the number of people traversing Ben Gurion International by 10 percent.

Photo: Gettyimages

They estimate that within a few years, Ben Gurion Airport won't be able to handle the traffic, leading Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to advance a 2011 government decision on the issue to the planning stage.

During the 2015 Galilee Conference in December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the government's intention to establish a new international airport in the north. One of the options is to build the airport at the Ramat David Air Force Base or to enlarge of one the smaller airports in the area.

The proclamation brought about a storm of criticism amongst the regional council heads whose territories abut the future airport, complaining that its noise pollution will be unbearable to residents, amongst other issues.

Relocating some of the international services to the new airport will take some of the pressure off Ben Gurion International. Additionally, the website of the Airport Authority claims that Israel is interested in continuing to increase competition for the benefit of the consumer. The government believes that the establishment of a new international airport will be an engine in the area where it is built.