The first aircraft to fly over Saudi Arabia, having secured Riyadh’s permission, belongs to Air Seychelles. The flight to the Indian Ocean island nation departed from Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.
Saudi Arabia recently opened its airspace to flights to and from Israel for the first time since announcing the lifting of the ban in the middle of last month.
The first aircraft to fly over Saudi Arabia, having secured Riyadh’s permission, belongs to Air Seychelles. The flight to the Indian Ocean island nation departed from Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.
A Cathay Pacific plane from Hong Kong also flew over Saudi Arabia before landing in Tel Aviv today, according to flight information service Flightradar24.
Israeli airlines are waiting to receive the relevant permission from Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh had been banning commercial flights to and from Israel from entering its airspace, but last month it lifted the measure on the occasion of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia. It was interpreted as a goodwill gesture to Israel, which was the next stop on Biden’s tour of the region.
Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations, with the kingdom not even recognizing the existence of the Jewish state. For this reason, after all, in the announcement of Saudi Arabia it is simply mentioned that “the airspace of the kingdom is opened to all air carriers” that fulfill the conditions.
Behind the scenes, however, the two countries are cooperating on security issues, in order to face the common “threat” of Iran.
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