A Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv on Thursday became the first commercial plane to traverse Saudi airspace en route to Israel since the kingdom fully opened its skies to airlines in July, local media reported.
Riyadh announced last month that it would open its airspace to “all carriers,” paving the way for airlines, including Israeli ones, to overfly the kingdom and thereby drastically reduce flight times to and from the Jewish state to major destinations in Asia.
A flight-tracking service showed that the Cathay Pacific plane on Thursday flew over the United Arab Emirates and the Persian Gulf before crossing the Saudi coast near the city of Dammam, according to reports. The aircraft then passed over northern Saudi Arabia and Jordan, entering Israeli territory over the Dead Sea.
Another Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv earlier this week took a different route, reports said, instead flying northwest over China, Kazakhstan and Turkey, and entering Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel’s national airline, El Al, is reportedly expected to receive final approval within the week to begin using Riyadh’s airspace.
Saudi officials are also expected to approve direct flights from Israel to Mecca, which will allow Israeli Muslims to more easily make the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Until now, Muslim worshippers had to embark on a lengthy bus ride from Israel to Jordan before boarding a flight to Mecca.