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 at Ben Gurion Airport at approximately 1:13pm local time.
Bahrain's national carrier departed from the capital Manama just over an hour after Foreign Minister Yair Lapid arrived at the Gulf state to inaugurate the Jewish state's first embassy there a year after diplomatic relations were established between the two countries as part of the Abraham Accords.
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A Gulf Air A320 airplane coming from the Bahraini capital Manama arrives at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Thursday
(Photo: Reuters)
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.
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Foreign Minister Yair Lapid greeted by his Bahrani counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani upon his arrival to Bahrain International Airport in Manama on Thursday
(Photo: GPO)
“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.