Israeli carrier Israir operates flight from Tel Aviv to Bahrain over Saudi airspace
The first known direct commercial flight between Israel and Bahrain landed Wednesday in the island kingdom, just a week after it signed a deal alongside the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations. Flight data showed an Israir Airlines Airbus A320 landed at Bahrain International Airport after a nearly three-hour flight from Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport.
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 12:35 | 23 September 2020
- Modified Date: 12:37 | 23 September 2020
Israeli carrier Israir operated a flight from Tel Aviv to Bahrain on Wednesday, flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed.
Bahrain, along with the United Arab Emirates, this month signed an agreement to establish formal ties with Israel.
Israeli media reported an Israeli government delegation was onboard the flight. There are no direct scheduled commercial flights between the two countries.
Spokespeople for Israel's prime minister and the Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment. Bahrain's government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israir declined to comment
Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday discussed by phone the agreement to establish formal ties, state news agency BNA said.
"We discussed how we might quickly add content to the agreements between Bahrain and Israel and turn this peace into economic peace, technological peace, tourist peace, peace in all of these fields," a statement from Netanyahu said.
Israeli airline El Al operated a flight carrying Israeli and U.S. government officials from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi on Aug. 31 for Israel-UAE normalisation talks.