Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Submit Guest Post

Israel's El Al appeals against Air India flights over Saudi

Israel's El Al airline said it appealed on Wednesday (28) to the Supreme Court to cancel the authorisation of direct Air India flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv via Saudi airspace.

The Indian carrier began using the new route on March 22, reducing flight times between the two cities by more than two hours.


Saudi Arabia had previously banned flights over its territory bound for Israel, a country with which Riyadh has no official diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia has so far not allowed Israeli carriers to use its airspace, and El Al says it is the victim of unfair competition.

"The State of Israel does not understand the extent of the damage caused by the government," said El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin.

"Today it is India, tomorrow it will be Thailand and all the east. It is impossible to assess the damage caused by this decision for the company's 6,000 employees."

El Al flights bound for India currently take a detour along the Red Sea to avoid Saudi and Iranian airspace.

The new air link between Tel Aviv and New Delhi was announced in July last year by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, but it was not until January that the pair suggested it might use Saudi airspace.

Transport minister Yisrael Katz described Air India's overflight of Saudi Arabia as "historic".

Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump's administration favour the idea of a convergence of interests against Iran between Israel and Arab countries, starting with Saudi Arabia.

Saudi approval of Air India's new route has been interpreted as a sign of a possible rapprochement with Israel.

Add EasternEye As Your Trusted Source
preferred source on google news

More For You

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

Anthropic has warned investors about the potential risks of increasingly powerful AI as it prepares for a potential IPO

Getty Images

Anthropic devoted 80 pages of its IPO filing to warning investors about AI risks

  • Anthropic devoted about 80 pages of its IPO filing to risk factors.
  • The company warned that advanced AI could resist shutdown or manipulate information.
  • Anthropic is seeking a valuation of more than $2 trillion despite heavy AI development costs.

Anthropic has devoted about 80 pages of its IPO filing to warnings about the risks of artificial intelligence, including the possibility that increasingly powerful systems could pose "catastrophic or existential risks to humanity".

The developer of Claude AI models is preparing for a potential stock market listing that could value the company at more than $2 trillion. Its prospectus, reviewed by Reuters and the Financial Times, shows how the company is balancing its rapid commercial expansion with concerns about the technology it is developing.

Keep ReadingShow less