UAE Airlines Maintain Flights to Israel Despite Ongoing Conflict
Mark Feldman, the CEO of Ziontours and director of the Diesenhaus Group in Jerusalem, told The Media Line that despite the war, the UAE’s carriers Emirates and Flydubai are continuing to fly to Israel, which shows the strength of the business relationships that the UAE and Israel have built.
Ethiopian Airlines, Air Serbia, and Uzbekistan Airways continue to fly to Tel Aviv. TUS Airways from Cyprus says it will return its flights, according to Feldman.
As the war began between Israel and Hamas, the UAE called for an end to the violence and to protect civilians. The Emirati Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Hamas attacks “against Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza Strip, including the firing of thousands at population centers, are a serious and grave escalation.”
The UAE, said the statement, is “appalled by reports that Israeli citizens have been abducted as hostages from their homes.”
Fleur Hassan-Nachum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and Israel’s special envoy for innovation, told The Media Line, “The UAE is still a country with which we have significant trade connections and deep friendships. I don’t see that changing over the brutal massacre that occurred on October 7. On the contrary, I’ve received dozens of phone calls and messages from worried friends there.”
Hassan Nachum said the number of Israelis traveling to the UAE has declined but that just this week, a few of her friends attended the Gitex Global tech conference there.
