Egyptian state airline EgyptAir will begin direct flights to Israel starting next month. The company’s booking platform shows services are set to depart the Egyptian capital for Israel once daily beginning October 3 to October 7. Seats for the 80-minute flight cost between 4,500 and 4,900 Egyptian pounds ($286 to $312). According to Israeli media there will be four direct flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv each week, for the first time in decades.
Since the 1980s, flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv have been operated by Air Sinai, a subsidiary carrier of EgyptAir, in unmarked planes without an Egyptian flag. EgyptAir’s services beginning next month will bear their country’s flag, and will be “fully marked.”
Air Sinai, which is owned by EgyptAir, began running the route in the 1980s in order to comply with the normalization agreement signed by Egypt and Israel in 1979. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel.
The news of the new flights comes after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Monday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, the first such meeting in more than ten years.