Emirates is to start daily flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv on Saturday, the airline announced, in the latest sign of deepening relations since the UAE and Israel normalized ties in September last year.
The Dubai-based carrier, one of the largest in the world, said the new service would also link Israel seamlessly with its global route network.
Low-cost carrier Flydubai launched the first commercial flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai just a few months after last year's agreement.
Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad and Israeli carrier Arkia now also offer regular flights.
Last month, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have signed a "green corridor" agreement allowing passengers vaccinated against the novel coronavirus to travel freely between the two countries.
According to Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, the agreement allows free movement between Israel and the UAE via mutual recognition of Emirati and Israeli-issued COVID vaccination and recovery certificates, without isolation or bureaucracy.
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An Etihad Airways plane carrying a delegation from the United Arab Emirates on a first official visit lands at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on October 20, 2020
(Photo: AFP)
"I was happy to sign this morning with the Health Minister of the United Arab Emirates, an agreement for a green corridor between the two countries," Horowitz said on his Twitter account.
The UAE's normalization of its relations with Israel, in a deal brokered by then-U.S. president Donald Trump's administration, broke with decades of Arab consensus and infuriated the Palestinians and their supporters.