Israel’s EL AL to resume India flights by overflying Saudi & Oman
Israeli airline EL AL will resume India flights this October after a three year pandemic gap and the journey will get shorter thanks to it overflying Saudi Arabia and Oman now. What used to be about eight-hour journey earlier with the Israeli airline taking much longer routes — Tel Aviv-Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-Arabian Ocean to Delhi and Mumbai and ditto on the way back — will now be a 5.5-hour flight to Mumbai and an hour more for Delhi.
Air India has always been taking the shorter route to Tel Aviv, thanks to being allowed to do so. AI is scheduled to increase their frequencies “from existing three daily flights per week to five from March 26, 2023. In addition, they will be starting to operate direct flights on the sectors from Mumbai and Bengaluru by June and October, respectively, with competitive prices,” said Israel’s tourism ministry said in a statement.
EL AL will operate four non-stop weekly flights from Mumbai to Israel on Boeing 737 with economy and business classes and two non-stop weekly flights to Delhi on Boeing 787 or 777. Flight ticket sales starting in April 2023, starting at $399 for lite tickets.
Shlomi Zafrani, EL AL’s VP (commerce and international affairs), said: “We are excited to launch these new flight routes from India to Israel, which were made possible thanks to the overfly agreement with Oman. We anticipate there will be high demand for these flights due to vast business activity between the two countries, as well as constant growth in Indian tourism to Israel. Israel is a beloved vacation destination to the Indian people, whether it is a family-oriented trip or an organised group vacation.”
