Saudi Arabia-Israel Relations: Confusion Over Historic Flight Path Permission

Israeli media reported Wednesday that Saudi Arabia for the first time would allow flights through its airspace for planes en route to Israel. A Saudi official, however, denied the report, according to Reuters.

State-owned carrier Air India proposed a new flight route between Delhi, India, and Tel Aviv, Israel, and asked permission from Saudi Arabia to fly over the Middle East power. Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel as a nation and has not allowed flights to Israel to pass through its airspace.

Israeli national carrier El Al operates a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Mumbai, India, but the flight path avoids Saudi airspace, adding an additional two hours to the flight.

The Air India flights are scheduled to begin in March. Despite the reports in outlets like daily newspaper Haaretz about the approved permissions, a spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation told Reuters that no such permission had been granted.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, became the first Indian prime minister to ever visit Israel last year in a show of the burgeoning relationship between the two countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited India last month to attend an economic summit. Netanyahu spoke about the flight path during the summit as a way to have an efficient and direct route between the two countries.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism said it will grant Air India around $900,000 for operating the flight. The ministry promotes more flights to Israel as a policy.

Israel has attempted to court warmer relationships with other U.S. allies in the Middle East, but whether Riyadh will take this step to defrost relations between the countries is unclear.