With far greater awareness of Eilat and with the help of the Israeli Tourism I am sure a prestige name such as British Airways would benefit the local tourism, if advertised well a flight or holiday in Eilat could be no different than taking a similar trip from the United Kingdom to the Canary Islands.
On a side note you mention Ryanair but Ryanair don't offer any direct flights from the United Kingdom to Israel let alone Eilat so you can't really use them as an example, in comparison have you not seen how flights are fairly expensive from London to Tel Aviv.