First direct tourist flight from Israel to UAE touches down in Dubai
A flydubai flight carrying Israeli tourists landed in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday at the Dubai International Airport.
A flydubai A6-FDC shortly after taking off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Bangladesh, Aug. 3, 2012. Photo: Faisal Akram via Wikimedia Commons.
Hussein Suleiman, the head of a delegation of Arab businessmen on the flight, said, “There is no doubt that the normalization between Israel and the UAE will bring good things and benefit to the Arabs inside Israel. There is no doubt about that,” according to the AP.
“We are supportive of this deal and of the normalization [of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates], and we are here today to normalize the normalization in reality,” he said.
The flight took around three hours and crossed over Saudi Arabia.
UAE and Israeli citizens can now visit each other’s countries visa-free owing to the recently signed Abraham Accords.
Flydubai CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith said last week that “since the launch of flydubai 11 years ago, we have been committed to removing barriers to travel, creating free flows of trade and tourism and enhancing connectivity between different cultures across our network.”
JNS
