Review of Israir flight from Eilat to Tel Aviv in Economy

INTRODUCTION

Hello again!
After 3 days in Eilat and in the area, came the time to return to our home :)

Here's my experience with Israir on the flight back from Eilat to Tel Aviv on flight 6H 458.
For those of you who didn't read my inbound flight FR, here's a link.

PHOTOS FROM EILAT AND THE AREA

THE REMAINS OF THE OLD AIRPORT IN EILAT (ETH AIRPORT)

The old airport runway was destroyed at least year ago, I visited in Eilat on April 2021 and the road between the two parts of the runway was already built.
As I mentioned in my previous flight report, the old airport location was much better and much more convenient.

ARRIVING TO ETM AIRPORT

We arrived to ETM airport 1 hour and 15 minutes before our flight, as Israir requested.
The old DC-3 that used to stand in Eilat airport also moved to the new airport:

The airport area was so empty that I could to stop in the middle of the road, take those pictures and continue.
The airport's security car stopped near our rented car and asked us why we stopped, but they were ok with what I did :)

PRE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE - ETM AIRPORT

The entrance to the airport:

The security process was similar to the security process I experienced always in TLV airport.
Security in Israel is tighter than the security in Europe.

Since the airport was pretty empty on this our (and I think it can handle much more flights), the security process was very fast.

The check in area:

We waited for the airline agents a couple of minutes, when they arrived, I heard them talking about how empty our flight will be and asked them for the number of passengers on our flight, they answered that out of 72 seats in the aircraft, only 17 will be occupied! Nice!

The airport was empty, as it was in our inbound flight:

Burgerim was close, but the daily branch was open. In fact, it was the only thing open on this area of the airport.

I checked the toilets near the check in area:

And as you can see, the toilets were clean and looked very good. Hopefully they'll be stay clean during the next years.

We came back to grab something to eat in the daily branch:

We bought 2 pasta with pesto salads, coca cola and soda and paid 95 ILS (27.5$ USD approximately) for them.
The pasta salad was ok, but nothing special.

Look at this…

The shop shelves were empty, it's very sad to see the airport on such way.

We went to the security again, this time for body scan and hand baggage check.
After this process, there were more shops and places to eat:

In the lower floor you can find 2 coffee shops (I don't know why, since both of them are Ilan's coffee), James Richardson shop (they sell snacks, chocolates, etc.), Jack Kuba (which was closed), Stimatsky (book shop), exchange (which was closed as well) and even a lounge!

Not too much when compering to TLV airport, but for domestic flight it's pretty good.

Gates area:

There were also vending machines:

The prices are reasonable for an airport.
6 ILS for water bottle, 7 ILS for Coca cola bottle.

I went to the toilets in the lower floor as well:

And as you can see, they were in very good condition and clean!

Boarding started on time and was very short (Do you remember? We were only 17 passengers on board).

Ramon airport:

Arkia with their EMB-195 (4X-EMF):

And 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 EXPERIENCE - ETM TO TLV

We boarded the aircraft pretty fast. Am I mentioned the advantage of being a small group of passengers? :)

Window view:

PSU:

Cleaning could be better, but still, could be worse as well.

The legroom situation was good:

Please note that my bag taking a lot of space, so the legroom is even better than what you already see.
The seat itself could be cleaner, as you can see in the picture there was a big stain on it.

Cabin view:

The flight was so empty that even our robotic vacuum had it's own seat!

The aircraft pushed back at 8:45 pm and we took off around 8:50 pm, meaning 10 minutes earlier!
ETM airport view:

Take off video (sorry for the bad quality, it was very dark outside and I did my best):

The seat belt sign remained on for all the flight, so there won't be a lavatory review on this flight report.

Our aircraft climbed to FL200, which was very high when comparing it to the inbound flight (FL130).

I tried my luck and talked with the flight attendants about visiting in the cockpit, they were very nice but said it's impossible to visit the flight deck of the ATR and I may try my luck again when I'll fly with Israir on their Airbus A320.

The tray table, which could be cleaner:The rest of the flight was uneventful, but the descent to TLV airport was a bit hard and not very pleasant.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, but the descent to TLV airport was a bit hard and not very pleasant.

I tried to took some photos during descent, but it wasn't easy, since it was night and the windows were dirty as well:

Landing video:

We landed on runway 21 with a time to spare.
The original arrival time was 10 pm, we landed at 9:30 pm and the aircraft was taxied to N19 parking in TLV airport (near to terminal 1).

Fedex B757F in N15:

4X-ATI, the second ATR of Israir, parking in N18:

Cabin view during deboarding:

Bye bye 4X-ATH!

A bus waited for us and took us to a long journey in the airport, all the way to terminal 3:

I tried to took photos from the bus, it wasn't easy.

Another Fedex B757F:

CargoJet B767F:

Elal B777 (4X-ECF, the newest 777 in Elal's fleet), hopefully those birds will return to fly soon, after more than 2 years!

TLV AIRPORT - TERMINAL 3 (DOMESTIC FLIGHT AREA)

We arrived to terminal 3 after the long journey in the airport, this entrance to terminal 3 is separated from the international area, which skips over the passport control and the customs.

There was only one baggage carousel:

We waited 20-25 minutes for our luggage, which is almost the length of the flight!

After we received our luggage, we went to terminal 3 arrival flights area (which you probably saw in my previous flight reports, but this time the way to this area was longer):

FUTURE FLIGHT REPORTS

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!