First Flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel Takes Off

Early on Tuesday, the first direct flight from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv took off, marking a significant development since the kingdom announced the opening of its airspace to Israeli aircraft.

According to the Israeli newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth," a "relief" plane operated by the Seychelles-based "Air Seychelles" company departed from Dubai to transport 128 Israeli passengers from Jeddah.

This followed a technical malfunction on a plane carrying them that had landed in the Saudi city the previous evening.

This marks the first-ever direct flight from a Saudi city to Israel.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it is in contact with the passengers of the plane, the airline, and relevant parties in the Israeli system to swiftly resolve the incident.

Yesterday evening, Monday, the "Air Seychelles" company announced that one of its planes, en route to Tel Aviv, had landed at Jeddah's airport in Saudi Arabia due to the discovery of a technical malfunction.

The company mentioned that the passengers would spend the night in a Saudi hotel. Later, an alternative plane from the same company, escorted by the police, departed to bring the passengers back to Israel.

According to the company, there were 128 Israelis on board the Airbus A320 aircraft, which had to land due to an electrical system malfunction.

As per the Israeli newspaper, Jeddah's airport was previously designated as an alternative airport for flight routes to Israel. The approval for emergency landings there for flights to and from Israel, passing through Saudi airspace, was already in place.

In July 2022, Saudi Arabia, ahead of then-U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, announced that it would allow all "eligible" airlines to cross its airspace, including Israeli airlines that might not necessarily fly to Gulf countries.

Despite recent speculations in Israel about an imminent normalization with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have diplomatic relations. The kingdom has stipulated on multiple occasions that the Palestinian conflict must be resolved before any such move occurs.