Arab News, Saturday, Nov 28, 2020 | Rabi Al Thani 13, 1442
Flydubai plane returns after inaugural service to Tel Aviv
Emirates:
A flydubai
aircraft landed in Dubai from Tel Aviv on Thursday, the first scheduled
commercial flight between the two cities following the normalization of ties
between the UAE and Israel.
“Welcome to Dubai,” an immigration officer said as the passengers from Israel
filed off the plane and into the glitzy Gulf city, some of them waving and
giving the peace sign.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on hand in Tel Aviv earlier
when the flight arrived after the four-hour journey from Dubai, called it “a
moment of history.”
“As-salaam alaikum (Peace be upon you),” he said to arriving passengers. “Come
again and again and again.”
The United Arab Emirates in September signed a landmark US-brokered deal to
formalize relations with Israel, the first such agreement by an Arab state in
the Gulf.
Commenting on the accord in a tweet on Thursday, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa
bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said it would foster “prosperity and progress” in the Middle
East.
With their economies hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE and Israel
are hoping for rapid dividends from the normalization deal, including an influx
of tourists as Dubai enters its winter high season.
“The start of scheduled flights will contribute to economic development and
create further opportunities for investment,” flydubai chief executive Ghaith
Al-Ghaith said when the service was announced earlier this month.
The Dubai carrier will fly the route twice daily, and Israeli airlines El Al and
Israir are both expected to launch their commercial services between the cities
next month.
Etihad Airways, based in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, has said it will begin
flying to Tel Aviv in March 2021.
The UAE became only the third Arab country to normalize ties with Israel,
following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
The two countries have already signed treaties on visa-free travel — although
that is yet to come into force — along with accords on investment protection,
science and technology.
Since the historic agreement, Bahrain has also forged ties with Israel, while
Sudan has agreed to do so in principle.