First Etihad Airways flight from Israel lands in UAE

Agencies

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

The first Etihad Airways flight to Israel returned to Abu Dhabi on Monday with an Israeli travel and tourism delegation on board, according to an Etihad statement.

Earlier, the first commercial passenger (Boeing 787 Dreamliner) flight to Israel by a carrier from the UAE landed at Ben-Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv just after 7 am, further cementing a normalization deal between the two countries.

Etihad said it plans regular passenger flights between the countries in the future and was launching a dedicated Hebrew website.

Etihad previously sent to Tel Aviv an unmarked cargo plane flying aid to assist the Palestinians in fighting Covid-19. In August, a Star of David-adorned El Al plane flew from Israel to Abu Dhabi, carrying a high-ranking American and Israeli delegation in the first-ever direct commercial passenger flight between the two countries.

Israel and the UAE announced in August they had agreed to normalize ties, setting off a flurry of business, banking, and intergovernmental agreements, along with an end to a longstanding boycott by the UAE against Israel.

Bahrain also signed an agreement on September 15 at the White House alongside the UAE to normalize relations with Israel. The UAE and Bahrain are the third and fourth Arab states to establish ties with Israel. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively.

An Israeli delegation flew to Bahrain on Sunday to formalize that deal.