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Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Permission for El Al Israel Airlines to fly over Oman is expected in “a matter of days,” chief executive Dina Ben-Tal said on Thursday.
Ben-Tal, speaking to reporters, said the airline had already received approval to fly over Saudi Arabia. However, the company must also pass over Oman to avoid Iran and save time for journeys to Asain countries.
Last month, Saudi Arabia said it would open its airspace to all air carriers. El Al and smaller Israeli rival Arkia later said they had applied for permission to fly over both Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a focus of US President Joe Biden’s tour last month of the countries which do not have formal ties. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said last month that Riyadh has no plans to do so until a two-state solution with the Palestinian population is reached.
“It’s not just Saudi Arabia. We need the full route to be approved,” Ben-Tal said.
Once fully approved, it would cut about 2-1/2 hours from flights to India and Thailand and save fuel costs. Present routes to those popular destinations bypass Saudi airspace by flying south over the Red Sea around Yemen.
“We are planning to reschedule our network around that new (shorter) route,” Ben-Tal said, adding El Al was also looking into new non-stop routes to destinations such as Australia. “It definitely will have a huge efficiency (benefit) around our network.”
