Delhi-Tel Aviv flight put on hold for now

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 16

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious diplomatic outreach towards India’s new found strategic partner Israel by starting a direct Air India flight to Tel Aviv from New Delhi is facing trouble due to viability of the route.

Air India had planned a non-stop flight to Tel Aviv three times a week starting mid-May, with inaugural flight initially planned for May 16, connecting Tel Aviv with New Delhi ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel later this year.

However, it has now emerged that operating such a flight would not be commercially viable till the time India gets permission from the Islamic countries, which fall on the way, to fly in their air space to reach the Israeli city.

Since most of the Islamic and Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, which lie between Mumbai and Tel Aviv, do not allow planes to fly to Israeli cities from its airspace, Air India pilots would have had to take a very circuitous route to avoid overflying countries that have such restrictions for Israel-bound planes.

At present, Israel’s El Al Airlines flies between Tel Aviv and Mumbai, but the flight takes longer time due to the restrictions by the countries in between that include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

An El Al flight taking off from Tel Aviv for Mumbai goes to the southern tip of the country, fly over Red Sea completely avoiding Saudi and then turn east from the “horn of Africa” in the Arabian Sea coming straight to the country’s financial capital, making it the most circuitous route.

As a result, the distance of 4,057 km between Mumbai and Tel Aviv is covered in eight hours — almost the time taken to fly the 6,700-km distance between Delhi and London.

This long circuitous route, sources said, makes the flight unviable commercially and as such it has been put on a hold as of now. Reports suggested that India was working on the diplomatic front to get the Islamic countries around.

Apparently, the earlier plans were to start the Mumbai-Tel Aviv flight but Delhi was added later due to an apparent prod from the top.