Following the normalizing of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last August, it now appears that the state-owned carrier Emirates is gearing up to commence flights to the Jewish state starting in June. When the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement was signed by Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, the UAE became the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan to normalize relations with Israel.
A normalization of relations meant that the two countries would set up diplomatic missions and allow visa-free travel, effectively opening up both to business and tourism. Realizing the potential, airlines in both countries almost immediately started planning their routes.
To make matters even better, Saudi Arabia, who does not recognize Israel, agreed to a request by the UAE to open up its airspace for flights between Israel and the Gulf State. This alleviated the need for commercial aircraft to circumnavigate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, cutting hours off some flight routes.
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Flights between DXB and TLV
Since commercial flights between Tel Aviv and the UAE began in November, EL AL, Israir, Etihad, and flydubai are all operating direct flights between the two counties. It was always assumed that at some point that Emirates would announce that it too would be offering flights between Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Ben Gurion Airport (TLV).
The only concern was that another state-owned carrier, flydubai works in close partnership with Emirates and would negate the need for Emirates to jump into the mix.
Daily non-stop Boeing 777-300ER flights
It seems that Emirates will commence flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv starting June 15, 2021. According to One Mile At A Time, an internal Emirates internal communication says that the airline will be deploying a…