Review of Israir flight from Tel Aviv to Eilat in Economy

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my flight report about my flight with Israir from TLV to ETM.
It has been a long time ago since I wrote a flight report, the corona virus changed my plans in 2020, but now it seems that I'll be able to claim my plans.

Eilat airport (ETH) closed in 2019, the old airport was located in the city center and you could walk from the airport to your hotel within 15-20 minutes.
Since 2019, aircraft land in ETM airport, which located 15-20 km from Eilat, meaning it's much less convenient to arrive with aircraft, and it's not a time saver as it was in the past.

For the first time in my flight reports history, the photos and the videos were taken with a smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra) and not with one of my cameras. 

So, let's begin the journey from TLV to ETM.

TLV AIRPORT - TERMINAL 1

The entrance to the terminal:

The check in area:

Though there were 3 agents for our flight, the check in process was slow, even slower than some of my international flights with larger aircraft.

During the waiting in the line, I went to the toilets in the terminal:

As you can see, the toilets weren't so clean, I saw the toilets in TLV airport in much better shape even on busy times.

After finishing the check in process, I received this form, which used only in domestic flights, I never received such form on my international flights from TLV.

Then I proceeded to the security check area (which I not filmed since it's prohibited):

As you can see, the international flights area in terminal 1 was closed, currently even low cost flights take off from terminal 3 (but the check in process is still handled in terminal 1 for some reason).

After finishing the security check, I went to the waiting area:

The Ben Gurion statue is pretty nice in my opinion, people who read my flight reports probably saw similar statue in terminal 3.

The waiting area:

The waiting area looks pretty nice and clean.
There are also charging ports, as well as vending machines:

Prices were reasonable for airport, Coca Cola bottle (500 ml) costs 7 NIS, approximately 2$ USD.

While waiting for the flight, I hoped to catch some aircraft photos, but this is the only one I could photograph:

There is also a coffee shop in the airport, with reasonable prices for airport:

They sell sandwiches, hot drinks (coffee, tea, etc.), cold drinks and snacks.

My boarding card:

I went to the toilets in the waiting area as well:

Here the cleaning situation was much better.

The way back to the waiting area:

Boarding started around 20 minutes before the flight and we made our way with bus.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much to photograph on our way to the aircraft.

Here's our aircraft:

Aircraft information:
Israir
ATR 72-500 (72-212A)
4X-ATH
In service with Israir since June 2011, making it almost 11 years old when I flew with it

FLIGHT EXPEREINCE - TLV TO ETM

The boarding process started almost at 9 am (our scheduled take off time).

The cabin of the ATR:

As you can see, the cabin was clean, but the seats showed a bit of wear, some refurbish of the cabin will be good.

The seats can not be reclined, but the legroom was pretty impressive for aircraft from this category:

Please note that I'm 1.64 meters, so the legroom was good for me, probably people around 1.75-1.80 meters will seat comfortably as well.

The back seat pocket included the duty free magazine, Israir magazine, safety card and sickness bag:

Window view while boarding:

During the boarding process, the pilots told us that our flight will be delayed due to the refuel of the aircraft. I don't know why they let us board the aircraft while it wasn't ready.

The modern PSU, with led light, not so clean:

The aircraft was pushed back with a 20 minutes delay.

Photos during taxing:

Take off video:

Climbing over the central area of Israel:

10 minutes into the flight, I went to the lavatory in the rear of the aircraft, and what a surprise! This is the tiniest lavatory I ever saw in an aircraft!

As you can see, the lavatory is in a very good condition and looked clean, well done Israir!

Some views of the southern part of Israel:

Landing video in ETM airport:

And some picture on our parking position in ETM:

We landed with a delay of 20 minutes.

Cabin view during deboarding:

And goodbye to 4X-ATH!

ETM AIRPORT

ETM (Ramon) airport is the newest airport in Israel and it looks pretty nice in my opinion.
Outside photos:

I found it very nice to walk from the airport to terminal, instead of waiting for the bus to take you to the airport.

Inside the terminal:

Baggage claim area:

As you can see all the rental cars company were closed, the only one who's working in the airport currently is Sixt (but their counter was closed also as you can see).

Outside view of the terminal:

It was very sad to see the airport, it's pretty big but doesn't have too much flights since the corona virus.
Only couple of domestic flights land here every day, probably up to 8 flights per day (not including Friday and Saturday). This airport feels like a white elephant.

I hope that with the situation of the corona virus under control in Israel, this airport traffic will start to grow.
It was very sad to see this airport so empty and without any activity.

NEXT FLIGHT REPORTS!

Domestic flights in Israel:
6H 458 (the return flight from ETM to TLV)

Flights to\from Europe:
IZ271 (TLV-BCN)
VY7844 (BCN-TLV)

Flights to\from Canada:
AC81 (TLV-YYZ)
AC80 (YYZ-TLV)

Domestic flights in Canada:
F8 1821 (YYZ-YYC)
WS654 (YYC-YYZ)

I hope that you enjoyed and hope to see you again in my future flight reports!