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Israel To Increase Flights To Asia Once Saudi Arabia Opens Its Airspace

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Israel To Increase Flights To Asia Once Saudi Arabia Opens Its Airspace
18 Jul 2022
min read

News Synopsis

Following Saudi Arabia's announcement that it would permit unrestricted access to its airspace, a move that would save fuel and shorten flight times, Israeli airlines intend to expand and launch new routes to India and other Asian countries.

However, given the lack of friendly relations between the nations and the ongoing negotiations to include Oman in the enlarged route, Israeli Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli warned that it might take several weeks to implement. Israeli airlines could only overfly Saudi land to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates before Riyadh's statement recently. They will be allowed to use Saudi airspace to reach Asia if the limitations on entry are lifted.

According to statements issued, both national carrier El Al Israel Airlines and smaller rival Arkia have already requested permission to fly over Saudi Arabia, which would cut trips to India and Thailand by around 2-and-a-half hours. The current routes to those well-known locations sail south over the Red Sea and around Yemen to avoid Saudi airspace.

Even though Riyadh hasn't legally recognized Israel, the US has been mediating over the increasing overflights, which Michaeli said would eventually need direct coordination between Israeli and Saudi civil aviation organizations.

It's preferable to total estrangement and no communication, in my opinion. So anything we can accomplish, we should do, and we should endeavor to increase our relationship and our level of trust," she said.

When questioned about the implementation date for the extended Saudi route, she responded, "Your guess is as good as mine. I'm hoping for weeks rather than months.

Israeli aircraft flying to Asia would aim to avoid Iran by entering Oman's airspace, which, according to Michaeli, initially authorized Israeli overflights in 2018. "I'm confident that it will be resolved once more in order to update this agreement. But once more, this is one of the aspects still being worked out, so we should proceed with caution and hold off on making any decisions until it really occurs, she said. Lower fuel use would also result from faster, more direct routes.

According to Shlomi Am Shalom, an El Al official, this would improve efficiency for El Al by enabling it to employ smaller planes on its route to Mumbai while conserving fuel on its almost daily trips to Thailand.

 

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