The Israeli airline won the tender, and will be the first to fly openly to Abu Dhabi • Due to various considerations, the flight will not depart on a new Dreamliner, but on the narrower and smaller Boeing 737
An Elal plane, in February
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Archive - Coco
El Al has been chosen to be the Israeli airline that will fly the delegations of Israel and the United States to the United Arab Emirates next week in order to promote the normalization of relations between the two countries, it was announced tonight (Thursday). In doing so, it will be the first Israeli airline ever to fly to the Arab country.
The selection was made after a few days of contacts and after the publication of a tender on the subject. Although the company's fleet has 15 new Dreamliner aircraft, El Al will operate the flight using a Boeing 737, a narrow-body aircraft much smaller than the Dreamliner. This decision stems from various considerations.
El Al crews will fly to Amsterdam in the Netherlands tomorrow in order to perform a flight simulator to prepare for the flight, which will take off this coming Monday from Ben Gurion Airport to the Emirates.
• Battle for the historic flight to the Emirates
• Israelis who will not be able to fly to the Emirates
• The head of the National Security Council will go to the United Arab Emirates at the head of a delegation to promote normalization
Israir, the most active Israeli airline in recent months, also submitted a bid to operate the historic flight, but as mentioned, EL AL was the one that won it, even though it has not been active for several months due to the corona plague and is in a very problematic situation.
The Israeli delegation, led by the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, will be the first to openly go to the United Arab Emirates since the announcement of the normalization of relations between the two countries. This will be the first commercial flight between the two countries.