Dov Field, Arabic: مطار سدي دوف), also known as Dov Hoz Airport (Hebrew: נמל התעופה דב הוז, Nemal HaTe'ufa Dov Hoz, Arabic: مطار دوف هوز) (IATA: SDV, ICAO: LLSD) was an airport in Tel Aviv, Israel that mainly handled scheduled domestic flights to Eilat, northern Israel (Haifa, the Galilee, and the Golan Heights),[1] as well as having served as a base for the Israeli Air Force (IAF).
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.
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 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 Haifa, was difficult and dangerous.
The first military flight was made in December 1947, when Pinchas Ben Porat flew an RWD-13 to Beit Eshel to rescue an injured soldier.
[7][8] 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 aircraft.
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.
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.
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.