Israeli El Al airlines launches Muscat-Riyadh corridor flights

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies + Al Mayadeen Net
26 Feb 19:47
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The Israeli airline El Al announces that its planes will start today, Sunday, using a new route that passes through Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman.

Israeli airliner El Al planes parked at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, April 21, 2013 (AP).

The Israeli airline El Al announced, on Sunday, that its planes will start using a new “time-saving” route that crosses through the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman.

This decision was taken after Muscat, last week, joined Riyadh in opening its airspace to the civil aviation of "Israel".

The company said that the El Al 083 flight, which will depart from Ben Gurion Airport in "Tel Aviv," will take 8 hours to reach Bangkok.

Furthermore, El Al had previously stated that the new route will shorten the duration of flights within Asia by more than two hours.

Flights headed to “Israel” flew over Saudi airspace

As per aviation data, Cathay Pacific and Air Seychelles flew over Saudi Arabia for the first time, in August 2022, after Riyadh announced earlier in September that it would open its airspace to all airlines, paving the way for more overflights to and from “Israel”.

The Cathay Pacific flight took off from Hong Kong and was scheduled to land in “Tel Aviv”.

The plane flew over the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf before crossing the Saudi coastline near Damman, according to a flight tracking service. Then, it crossed over northern Saudi Arabia and Jordan before landing in occupied Palestinian territories north of the Dead Sea.