The airport is of extreme strategic importance to Israel due to it being one of the few convenient entry points to the country for most travelers. To alleviate single point of failure risk, Ramon Airport was opened in 2019. The airport closed for a week in January 2021 to limit the spread of COVID-19. On June 2021, overlaps in the airport's COVID monitoring, prompted Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to appoint Aluf (res.) Roni Numa to the new position of airport COVID commissioner.