Until now Israel’s national airline has been restricted in flying East.
It’s all down to several Arab nations who have denied El Al overflying rights.
(Yes I know there are ‘freedoms of the air.’ By rights all nations who signed the 1944 Chicago Convention must honour these ‘freedoms’ but sometimes politics get in the way)
What has been little reported in the UK is the fact that Saudi Arabia has lifted its overflying ban which previously applied to El Al.
It therefore means El Al can operate eastwards more easily.
Previously its flights had had to take a circuitous routing which increased flight time, impacted on fuel consumption and therefore pushed up the cost of operating the route.
On Monday, El Al’s DG Dina Ben Tal Ganancia announced that her airline wanted to operate direct flights to Australia in addition to Tokyo.
By “direct” I presume these will be non-stop, as a 15 hour flying time was mentioned.
It’s understood that Melbourne would be the Australian destination sought by El Al.
Finally El Al expects to serve Dublin in the near future.
Both Dublin and Tokyo were potential destinations before the pandemic and during the latter both were placed on the back burner.
At the time of writing schedule details have not been released.
Business Traveller will update you with further news in due course.
