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Air India announces direct flights to Israel over Saudi air space will begin next week

More direct route will cut two hours off the flight time

March 16, 2018 15:23
Flight times between Israel and India will be dramatically shortened
1 min read

Direct flights between Israel and India using Saudi Arabian airspace will begin next Thursday, Air India has confirmed.

The route will end a decades-old ban by the Saudi authorities on any flights landing or taking off from Israel.

"The Air India flights to Israel will start from March 22. The flights will take around seven hours and five minutes, and fly over... Saudi airspace," Praveen Bhatnagar, a spokesman for Air India, told AFP.

Flights between India and Israel currently take a route which skirts Saudi territory, flying over the Red Sea and around the Arabian peninsula until it reaches Yemen.