First direct commercial flight from Bahrain lands in Israel
Gulf Air operating biweekly route between Manama and Tel Aviv using company’s new Airbus fleet
The first-ever direct commercial flight between Bahrain and Israel landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday afternoon when a Gulf Air Airbus A320 touched down to Ben Gurion Airport at approximately 1:13 pm local time.
Bahrain's national carrier departed from the capital Manama just over an hour after Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in the Gulf state to inaugurate Israel's first embassy there.
The opening ceremony comes a year after diplomatic relations were established between the two countries as part of the Abraham Accords.
The flight will operate twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. It will take 2 hours and 50 minutes from Bahrain to Tel Aviv and 2 hours and 35 minutes for the return trip.
The route was initially announced in April and was originally scheduled to start on June 3 but was postponed.
“We are delighted to announce the launch of our Bahrain-Tel Aviv route as part of the historic Bahraini-Israeli relations,” Gulf Air Acting CEO Capt. Waleed Al-Alawi said.
“As the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, we take great pride in supporting our leadership and the Kingdom in their role of preserving peace and prosperity in the region. We hope this is merely the beginning of developing further opportunities.”
Direct flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began last November and in July direct flights were launched to Morocco -- the other countries that signed the Abraham Accords with Israel along with Sudan.