A first flight from the Emirati company Etihad Airways landed in Israel on Monday to take Israeli tourism professionals to the United Arab Emirates, in the wake of the agreement to normalize relations between the two countries.
Flight EY 9607 from Abu Dhabi landed early Monday morning at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Transport Ministry spokeswoman Liza Dvir told AFP.
The plane is to bring Israelis, tourism professionals, for a two-day visit to the Emirates, she said.
Read also: Israeli Parliament ratifies standardization agreements with the Emirates
“
Today, we are writing history.
Etihad became the first Gulf company to operate a passenger flight to Israel.
And that's just the beginning,
”read the Etihad Airways Twitter page.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted him with this inaugural flight during a meeting of his Likud party.
“
We are making historic changes
,” he said.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Sunday to set up 28 weekly flights, according to Dvir, who did not specify when the flights will be carried out.
Agreements between the Emirates and Bahrain with Israel were signed on September 15 in Washington under the leadership of US President Donald Trump, making these two Gulf states the first Arab countries to normalize their relations with the Hebrew state from Egypt. in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. On Monday, the Emirati and Bahraini governments ratified these normalization agreements with Israel, according to news agencies in both countries.