AI makes history, lands in Israel using Saudi airspace

Tel Aviv, March 23 

Air India’s maiden flight to Israel has landed in Tel Aviv, reducing the travel time substantially after Saudi Arabia for the first time allowed a commercial flight to use its airspace, indicating a thaw in ties between Arab kingdom and the Jewish state.

Heralding a new beginning in the people-to-people contact and diplomatic ties between India and Israel, the state-run Air India introduced the direct thrice-a-week flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Saudi permitted the airline to use its airspace, enabling it to take a shorter route, covering the distance in 7.25 hours, 2.10 hours less compared to only other airline that flies between the two countries —Israel’s El Al. — PTI