Just a few weeks ago the United Arab Emirates wouldn’t allow visitors to enter with an Israeli passport.
Now there is a peace agreement, El Al has flown to Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia has given permission to overly their airspace, and the UAE rolled out the red carpet for Israel.
Things can really change in the blink of an eye!
And now, Israir is applying for permission to fly nonstop between Tel Aviv and Dubai starting on October 2nd. The nonstop flight should take less than 3.5 hours thanks to being able to fly over Saudi Arabian airspace.
The flight can already be seen as scheduled on the IAA site:
That’s truly incredible!
I don’t yet see flights for sale, but hopefully that will happen shortly. Israel is currently closed to foreigners through September, so it will be interesting to see if that changes in October. When it does, it’s likely that we’ll see Emirates and/or Etihad add flights as well.
It will be a real challenge for Israeli airlines to compete with those world class carriers. That’s even more true if El Al can only fly a 737 to the UAE versus an Emirates Boeing 777 or an Airbus A380 with a bar and shower onboard.
Meanwhile, El Al remains closed, with last week’s flight to Abu Dhabi one of the few flights they have flown since March.
I wrote about my awesome 2017 stopover in the UAE here. When will you book your trip?
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23 Comments On "Israir Applies To Fly Nonstop Between Tel Aviv And Dubai Next Month!"
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Israair…LOL, ELAL is gold compare to them
I know you keep mentioning that it will be hard for Israeli airlines to compete with the onboard bar, shower, and nicer planes but it’s a 3.5 hour flight so the shower and bar are more or less useless on such a short flight, so what’s the real reason to take one airline over the other besides for price?
Clearly you have never taken a flight with a bar onboard 🙂
I can say that my flight from London to Tel Aviv (under 5 hours) flew by really quickly, with being able to sit and shmooze with other passengers at the bar.
Besides for the fact, that the service and onboard experience will be way better.
False, I also enjoyed the bar from tlv to lhr, but that flight is 1.5 hours longer. Paying a premium to use an on-board bar for an hour and a half or so is a little extreme
Those days are over in the new unnormal.
The short flights are competitively prices typically, and a bargain relative to the hard product you’re getting!
Why would they use a A380 for 3.5h flight?
Emirates only has 777 and A380
Sadly Ben Gurion is incapable of handling the A380
That is too bad. Can you share a link where it says A380 cannot fly there?
that’s fake news!!!
sleeve E at Ben Gurion can handle the A380
Can an A380 even fly into TLV?
When there’s a will there’s a way.
@Dan:
Is Israir equipped with the Skyshield?
#question of the day
Or are they also fighting over it like Elal? 🙂
I would assume they are.
The new E wing can house 2 A380s
I thought one needed the special two floor jetbridge for the A380, and I haven’t seen it on the E wing.
Israir is sadly a Israeli airline led by Yiden and flies on Shabbos R”L bringing massive Chilul Shabbos and Chilul Hashem, Sad to see them open this rout on a Friday which probably means that their return flight to Israel will be on Shabbos. One good thing about ELAL was that at least official LY flight operations where not carried out on Shabbos as policy . (don’t get me wrong, I wrote “One” and I meant “One”)
You also meant “OFFICIAL”?
I am hopeful that an Israeli carrier will enter a code-sharing agreement with a UAE airline which would allow for a real partnership for airlines in the Mideast.
Is there any visa necessary for uae? what about covid restrictions? are they a green country?
Yes, they love Money there
They slap a nice tax Per room on hotel stays even for tourists! They love MONEY indeed