BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL ¨C Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel, with the inauguration on Thursday of an Air India route between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.
Air India 139 landed at Tel Aviv¡¯s Ben Gurion Airport after a flight of over 7? hours, marking a diplomatic shift for Riyadh that Israel says was fueled by shared concern over Iranian influence in the region.
¡°This is a really historic day that follows two years of very, very intensive work,¡± Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said in a radio interview, adding that using Saudi airspace cut travel time to India by around two hours and would reduce ticket prices.
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