Israeli airline announces direct flights to Dubai

Israel's second-largest airline Arkia has announced direct flight services to Dubai beginning from January 3 next year. The flight price starts at $149 for a one-way ticket and it will cover the distance between Tel Aviv to Dubai in three to four hours.

Tel Aviv: Arkia, Israel's second-largest airline, has announced direct flight services to Dubai, which will begin from January 3, 2021.

The announcement on Tuesday is the first made by an Israeli airline for direct commercial flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the US-brokers normalisation deal signed between the two countries on September 15, local media reported.

According to the company, the flights, the price of which will start at $149 for a one-way ticket, will cover the distance between Tel Aviv to Dubai in three to four hours.

Read:|Israel to sign visa exemption deal with UAE

In a statement, Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz said: "The decision to start a flight line to Dubai was made after increasing requests from our customers, private business clients and many requests from groups organising conferences."

Besides Dubai, the airline was also Sharjah, another major city in the UAE, as well as Bahrain.

Also on Tuesday, Etihad Airways Flight EY9607, the first commercial shuttle from the UAE to Israel, landed at the Ben-Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv, The Times of Israel reported.

The flight came a day after the two countries agreed to enable 28 weekly direct flights between their territories.

The flight arrived without passengers but later ferried an Israeli travel and tourism delegation to Abu Dhabi.

On Tuesday, a senior UAE delegation made a landmark visit to Israel, saying it wished to facilitate the reciprocal opening of embassies in Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi "as soon as possible".

IANS report

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