A commercial Israeli flight flew through Saudi Arabian airspace early Tuesday, the first time an Israeli airline used Saudi airspace to fly to a non-Gulf destination. Arkia airlines flight 611 took off from Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv at 1:19 a.m. on August 23, crossing into Saudi airspace about 33 minutes into the flight. It landed 6 hours and 1 minute after takeoff, at 8:20 a.m. local time, at Mahe Island, Seychelles off the coast of East Africa. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Aviation Authority announced early on July 15 that it had decided “to open the kingdom’s airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying,” though the announcement did not mention Israel specifically. This paved the way for US President Joe Biden to fly directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia that same day. Prior to the announcement, both Israeli airlines and other airlines traveling to or from Israel were barred from flying in Saudi airspace.
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