Israeli airline drops plea against Air India flights via Saudi-airspace
Israel's national carrier El Al has withdrawn its plea filed in Israel's High Court of Justice against the government decision to allow Air India to fly over Saudi Arabia's airspace on Delhi-Tel Aviv route. In its petition, El Al had claimed that granting the Indian airline permission gave a foreign company an unfair competitive advantage and violated the state's commitment to Israel's national carrier.
Air India's Delhi-Tel Aviv flight significantly reduces cost, time
On July 18, Israel's High Court of Justice had urged El Al to drop the petition it filed in March this year, days after Air India's inaugural flight landed in Tel Aviv on March 22. The AI flight between Delhi-Tel Aviv flies over Saudi and Omani airspace, two countries with which Israel doesn't have diplomatic relations. AI significantly reduces the cost and flight time.
Israeli PM hailed the permissions by two countries as 'historic'
The permission by Saudi and Oman to allow Air India to fly through their airspace on the way to Tel Aviv was hailed as "historic" by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.
Allowing AI to cross over airspace violated 1944 Convention
El Al in its petition argued that allowing Air India to cross over airspace violated the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, as well as various Israeli Government decisions. The airline noted that in a December 1994 decision to privatize El Al, the government said that Israeli Civil Aviation Policy must ensure "equal opportunities between Israeli airlines and foreign airlines on a competitive basis".
New route also violates bilateral agreement between Israel and India
The airline also argued that the new route also violates a bilateral agreement Israel and India signed in 2016 that obliges Jerusalem to allow El Al "an equal and fair opportunity" to operate the flight route between the two countries. Meanwhile, Air India has increased its frequency of weekly flights on the route to four times a week from three times.
