New Delhi: Marking a new beginning in people-to-people contact and diplomatic ties between India and Israel, the state-run carrier Air India will introduce a direct flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv from today. The flight is scheduled to land in Israel today evening and later return to Delhi.
According to Air India, the flight will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Air India has been allowed by Saudi Arabia to fly over its territory on its new route from New Delhi to Tel Aviv. With this move, the air travel time from New Delhi to Tel Aviv will reduce from about eight hours to five and a half hours.
Many Arab and Islamic nations do not recognize Israel and don’t allow airlines to use their airspace for flight services to that country.
“The opening of the route from India and the flight via Saudi Arabia is a historic event,” said Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin. “I am glad that the great pains we took with Air India over the past two years have borne fruit, and a direct air route from Delhi to Israel has been opened.” These efforts included hosting company executives in Israel. “The new route will contribute to increasing passenger traffic from India, which is making consistent progress,” Levin said.
According to Globes, since the beginning of the year, the number of incoming tourists to Israel has increased by 33 percent, compared with the corresponding period last year. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism is aiming at much larger numbers, given the fact that at least 50 million Indians hold passports. According to reports by the Ministry of Tourism, an Indian tourist stays in Israel for an average of 6.2 nights, and spends $1,066 during his visit. The Ministry of Tourism had opened a special office in Mumbai to promote tourism to Israel four years ago.
Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, India and Israel relations have reached a new height and last year he made a first-ever visit to Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited India last month, the first such trip in 15 years.
El Al Israel Airlines, flies four weekly flights to Mumbai but it takes seven hours as the flights are routed south towards Ethiopia and then east to India, avoiding Saudi airspace.
