Significant nod by Saudi allows Air India flights to Israel to commence from March 22

NewsBharati    18-Mar-2018
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New Delhi, March 17: “The Air India flights to Israel will start from March 22. The flights will take around seven hours and five minutes, and fly over… Saudi airspace,” Airline Spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar said. 

 
The new service was first announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last July, with PM Netanyahu then suggesting in January the route could pass over Saudi Arabia.

After Air India inked a MoU to fly to Israel over Saudi Arabia; Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Saudi Arabia has given permission to an airline flying through to Tel Aviv to use its airspace.

This MoU stands as most significant as Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel and has banned any flights to the country from using its airspace for more than 70 years.

PM Netanyahu informed that Saudi Arabia has given Air India approval to fly through its airspace on flights between Israel and India.

“Air India signed an agreement today to fly to Israel over Saudi Arabia,” the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a briefing at the Blair House in Washington, DC, emphasizing that the flight to and from India would take the same length of time as flights between London and Tel Aviv, some five and a half hours. Also, this move will give an impetus to the tourism in big numbers.