Sde Dov Airport (, ''lit.'' Dov Field, ), also known as Dov Hoz Airport (, ''Nemal HaTe'ufa Dov Hoz'', ) was an airport in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, Israel that mainly handled scheduled domestic flights to

Eilat Eilat ( , ; ; ) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port of Eilat, port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The c ...

, northern Israel (

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, the

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, and the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

), as well as having served as a base for the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

(IAF). It was the largest airport in Tel Aviv proper, and the second largest in the area, after

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport , commonly known by the Hebrew language, Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on outskirts north of the city of Lod and directly south of the city of Or Yehuda, i ...

on the outskirts of

Lod Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The ci ...

. The airport opened in 1938 and was named after

Dov Hoz Dov Hoz (; September 19, 1894 - December 29, 1940) was a leader of the Labor Zionism movement, one of the founders of the Haganah organization, and a pioneer of Israeli aviation. Biography Born in Orsha, Russian Empire, in 1894, Hoz immigrated to ...

, one of the pioneers of Jewish aviation. It ceased operations on 30 June 2019 after a controversial, long-delayed plan came into effect to close the airport in order to build high-end residential apartments on its valuable beachfront property. Commercial flights were moved to Ben Gurion Airport and military flights were moved to other IAF bases. The airport was a focus city for Arkia Israel Airlines and Israir Airlines.

History

Early history

In 1937, the mayor of Tel Aviv, Israel Rokach, asked the British mandate authorities for permission to create an airport in Palestine, promising to solve the transportation problem of

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

during the Arab revolt of 1936–39 when travelling from Tel Aviv through Arab territory to the main airport at Lydda, to catch Palestine Airways flights to

, was difficult and dangerous. Works began on a plot of land north of the

Yarkon River The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River (, ''Nahal HaYarkon''; , ''Nahr al-Auja''), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west throu ...

, and when completed in October 1938, the airport served regular flights to

, with the option of flights to

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

. In 1940, the airport's name was changed to Sde Dov in memory of

, one of the pioneers of Jewish aviation. Sde Dov was abandoned after Palestine Airways ceased operations in August 1940, and the site was used as a British Army base until December 1947 when with British permission the runway was reopened by the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

. In the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

, the airport served as a base to the

. It was a central base, home to 21 aircraft at the time. The first military flight was made in December 1947, when Pinchas Ben Porat flew an

RWD-13 The RWD 13 was a Polish touring plane of 1935 in aviation, 1935, three-seater high-wing monoplane, designed by the RWD (aircraft manufacturer), RWD team. It was the biggest commercial success of the RWD. Development The RWD 13 was a touring plane ...

to Beit Eshel to rescue an injured soldier.

After the war

Following the 1948 war, the Arab orchards to the east of Tel Aviv were opened for development, and the military started using the Sde Dov airport on a regular basis. The airport regained its commercial operations, initially serving domestic flights, mostly to single customers, on

Piper Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is P ...

aircraft. It later expanded operations to scheduled service on larger aircraft to various parts of Israel. As a result of the land availability, an additional, north–south, runway was built with no opposition. By 1960, land in Tel Aviv became scarce, and the municipality demanded that the airport be relocated northward, so as to allow residential development in its place. However, a committee that investigated the options for such a relocation in 1961 found no feasible site in proximity to Tel Aviv and suggested that flights be moved to Lod airport (now known as Ben Gurion Airport), and that road access from Tel Aviv to

be improved. This option, however, was blocked by the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

. The government set up a second committee in 1968 which suggested that the old east–west runway be closed and the airport's area reduced, allowing for development to the east of the airport. They suggested that the old east–west runway be replaced by a new runway in the sea, adjacent to the beach. The old runway was closed, and a high density upper-middle income neighborhood was built to the east of the airport, although the new runway was never constructed due to the high cost involved. As the new residential area suffered from aircraft noise, residents joined in the demand that the airport be relocated. Despite this, the number of flights to the airport increased as the newly formed

Israel Airports Authority The Israel Airports Authority (IAA, , ''Reshut Sdot HaTe'ufa BeYisra'el''; ) was founded in 1977 as a Government-owned corporation, public corporation mandated by the Israel Airports Authority Law. The authority is responsible for the management ...

strived to reduce congestion at Ben Gurion Airport by shifting all domestic turbo-prop flights to Sde Dov. Once again, the only feasible alternative proposed at this point was to build a runway in the sea and again, the high cost of this project meant that it never happened. This was a large issue in the area during the whole of the 1980s.

Recent history and closure

The early 1990s saw a rapid rise in land values in the Tel Aviv area following the massive immigration wave from the former Soviet Union and the rapid economic growth fueled by Israel's subsequent hi-tech boom. This brought the issue of relocation back to light. Despite this, however, in 1997, Sde Dov was declared an International Airport for private flights. The issue remained unresolved until late 2006 when it was announced that the airport would be vacated to make way for residential redevelopment. The plan to close the airport was strongly opposed by the Tel Aviv and Eilat municipalities, and its implementation was postponed numerous times until the airport finally closed on 30 June 2019. By 31 July 2019, a Caterpillar 950M loader started the first phase of removing the runway and within days the runway was unrecognizable.

The airport prior to closure

Sde Dov Airport mostly handled domestic flights within Israel, as well as

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

activity and limited international flights, mostly to nearby

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. The airport had two terminals. The IAF took up about 40% of overall movements (take-offs and landings), and used the airport as a base for some of its operations, as well as a convenient hub for military and government passenger traffic. Due to its location in the centre of Israel, air-force and civilian pilots alike crossed the airspace controlled by Sde Dov's air traffic control tower from north to south and vice versa in order to reach their destination, without landing at Sde Dov. This significantly increased the air traffic density above and around the airport, and efforts were made to keep "crossing traffic" away from the approach and departure patterns in order to minimise their effect on air traffic safety at Sde Dov. The airport had seven check-in desks and 45 aircraft stands.

The former airport site after closure

In early 2020, the Israeli Defense Ministry completed demolition of the old airport structures ahead of redevelopment. The former

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

was left standing and will remain as a historic preserved building. Per plans approved in 2020, the site is to become host to 16,000 housing units, 35 high rise office towers and of hotels. As the former Eilat Airport also shut down in 2019, Israel has the opportunity to redevelop two centrally located former airport sites in growing cities going into the 2020s. Criticizing the plans for redevelopment as overly focused on

luxury apartment A luxury apartment is a type of apartment that is intended to provide its occupant with higher-than-average levels of comfort, quality and convenience. While the term is often used to describe high-end regular apartments, or even typical apartmen ...

s, the Israeli newspaper ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'' called the planned housing "premium homes that only Israel's

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...

can buy".

Airlines and destinations

As of July 2019, the airport no longer serves any traffic. Prior to its closure, both Arkia and Israir Airlines operated scheduled services out of the airport. The airport primarily served

domestic flight A domestic flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in the same country. Airports serving domestic flights only are known as domestic airports. Domestic flights are generally c ...

s to

Haifa Airport Haifa Airport (, ''Namal HaTe'ufa Haifa''; ) , also known as Uri Michaeli Airport, is an international airport in Haifa, Israel. It is located to the east of the city, close to Kishon Port and Israel Shipyards and mainly serves civilian flights, ...

and Eilat Airport.

References

External links

Sde Dov AirportAerial view of Dov Hoz Airport

Official website
{{authority control 1938 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 2019 disestablishments in Israel Airports established in 1938 Airports disestablished in 2019 Airports in Israel Buildings and structures in Tel Aviv Israeli Air Force bases Transport in Tel Aviv Defunct airports in Israel World War II sites in Mandatory Palestine