Israel to start cargo flights to UAE from Sept 16

Our Correspondent

Days after it made a commercial passenger flight to the UAE, Israel’s national carrier El Al has announced that it will start cargo flights to Dubai on September 16.

The flight is scheduled to take off from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, the airline said in a statement on September 3. Unlike the direct passenger flight on August 30 which flew over Saudi airspace, the cargo service will fly via Liege in Belgium to Dubai, the Israeli airline said.

“The weekly El Al cargo flight to Dubai will enable Israeli companies connectivity in import and export from and to Dubai, as well as Asia in transfer from Dubai,” El Al said. The Boeing 747 aircraft will be carrying “agricultural and high-tech equipment” from Israel to the UAE on a regular Wednesday fixture in the future; the return flights from Dubai will be on Fridays.

El Al has been hit hard by the pandemic and is in advanced negotiations for a government bailout to avoid bankruptcy.

Saudi airspace opens up
Meanwhile, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority confirmed on September 2 that Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace to all flights from and to the UAE.

The same day, Saudi and US officials reviewed prospects for the peace process in the region and the need to resume negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to achieve a just and lasting peace. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, met Senior Advisrr to the US President, Jared Kushner, and his accompanying delegation to discuss partnership between the two countries.

Kushner, who was in the kingdom after a historic meeting between UAE, US and Israeli officials on August 31- September 1, said “fully normalised relations” between Israel and Saudi Arabia were an “inevitability”.

Saudi Arabia, like Israel and the UAE, consider Iran a common foe and maintains close ties with Washington.