First commercial flight from UAE lands in Israel

  • The two nations agreed to enable 28 weekly direct flights.
Updated 19 Oct, 2020

The first commercial passenger flight from the United Arab Emirates Landed in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday.

Earlier, the two nations agreed to enable 28 weekly direct flights. Etihad Airways Flight No 9607 landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion international airport just after 7am. Later, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed for Abu Dhabi carrying an Israeli travel and tourism delegation.

Etihad has become the first Gulf airline to operate a passenger flight to Israel. Etihad has said that it plans regular passenger flights between the countries in the future.

In August, El Al Flight 971 landed in UAE from Israel carrying an Israeli-American delegation. The flight had American officials led by President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien on board. Whereas, an Israeli delegation was led by National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

Israel and the UAE in August had announced that they have agreed to normalize ties, along with an end to a longstanding boycott by the UAE against Israel.

In a joint statement, US President DonaldTrump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said they had agreed to the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

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