In world first, Air India crosses Saudi airspace to Israel

• Sarwar Alam
• 23 March, 2018

By: Sarwar Alam

Air India launched on Thursday (22) the first scheduled service to Israel to be allowed to cross Saudi airspace, a sign of a behind-the-scenes improvement in ties between the Arab kingdom and the Jewish state. Flight AI 139 landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport about 30 minutes after its scheduled arrival time of 1945 GMT. “This is a historic moment,” Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said on the tarmac as the Boeing Dreamliner rolled to a halt. “It is the first time that there is an official connection between the state of Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said in…

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