Some EL AL flights are about to get a whole lot shorter…
Continue reading: Major: Oman Opens Airspace To All Israel Flights
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Eilat's new Ramon airport is worth a visit. Small but beautiful.
For an AVGeek, all airport action happens in front of the terminal's huge windows. Perfect tarmac views from any spot.
Plus a priority pass lounge that was never reviewed (to my knowledge).
LY 83 is actually already operating using the shorter route. Left at 8:15PM local time.
a minor correction, LY83 is the first Israeli carrier to use the Omani airspace. As I type this comment, its just a few miles off the coast of Qatar.
Omani airspace has been closed to most western civilian air traffic because of war.
Opening airspace for diplomatic reasons and also because a country is safe to transit are two different things.
And, I'm not sure why LY or other carriers couldn't transit Saudi Arabia, fly over the UAE and over the Persian Gulf before heading into the Indian ocean via the Arabian Sea.
Also, your map shows that El Al went up over India instead of over a routing over southern India so there seems to be more about their routing they took than just Oman.
@Tim Dunn
Omani Airspace has always been open to and is frequently used by western carriers, Yemeni Airspace however is a different story. There is no war over Oman.
Tim,
LY couldn’t route before as you suggest because Omani airspace stands between UAE and the Arabian Sea. Muscat FIR is much larger than just the land mass of Oman. And Dan77W is correct Muscat FIR has never been closed to western carriers and is heavily used by them.
Btw was just in Eilat airport and it is really stunning but the lounge was closed and a lady who works in the airport told me she doesn’t think it’s been open for the last few months.
I never said there is a current war over Oman.
in addition, there are countries over which some airlines from some countries cannot overfly because of their own governments, not because the government "underneath" closed that airspace.
ex. US airlines cannot overfly Iran but many foreign carriers do.
@Tim,
You said : “ Omani airspace has been closed to most western civilian air traffic because of war.” which is incorrect on both counts. That is what I was referring to.
What has Biden done???? This all started in the Trump era with SA and UAE opening up and UAE and Israel having diplomatic relations. Biden has had nothing to do with this... I think Oman instead of being worried about Biden is following suit with its GCC partners UAE and SA.
By the way, when Trump was in office, I dont remember there being any war in Ukraine, terrorist attacks, north korea shooting off missiles left and right, nor do i remember the world being so unstable...
I'm not exactly a Trump fan, but dont try and give Biden credit. The only thing he has done is cause chaos in the US borders and chaos around the world.
It’s hilarious how you guys don’t realize that most of these countries were already supporting Israel on the DL before Trump
"Oman is roughly 79 years late"
Maybe that's what happens when you let Mossad run operations using El Al planes and undercover agents.
Until recently where 'balloons' seem to be better at infiltration.
The orange clown did more to destabilise the world. He made it acceptable to be racist and intolerant.
Most of his supporters probably couldn’t even find the US on a map.
Staying your no trump supporter is exactly like saying “ I’m not racist, but …”
What war in Oman? There’s been a war in Yemen, which is why most carriers avoid Yemeni airspace, especially when they could just fly over Oman.
As far as the UAE goes, I imagine part of the issue was that it’s too close to both Iran and Oman and that it’s relatively small. If there were to be weather issues or something over the UAE, there wouldn’t have been much room on either side to avoid it.
Oman was the first Gulf country to ease relations with Israel back in 1994 when Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin was invited to Muscat. Since then they had a bilateral trade agreement that lasted until the start of second Intifada in 2000. Recently, Netaniyahu made a visit to Oman as well. Perhaps it's just a matter of time we see a non-stop MCT-TLV flight. Quite surprising the airspace opening came quite late.
There's been a war in Ukraine since 2013
Terrorist attacks occurred frequently under Trump in America (remember January 6th for a start)
You clearly don't like Biden but are blaming him for things out of his control...
When are you coming to Israel again?
I have an idea, do a review on El Al's 737
You seem to be confusing Yemen and Oman.
In any case, TLV flights couldn't bypass Oman without overflying Iranian airspace, which is closed to Israeli flights.
I doubt it will happen with El Al, but the opening of Omani and Saudi airspace, coupled with Israel's geographic location, would allow for an excellent hub and spoke carrier to connect Europe and North America with Asia and Australia.
Both US and Europe have Open Skies Treaties with Israel, but its unclear to me to what extent Fifth Freedom rights apply to allow US/EU airlines to use TLV as a stopover destination.
Oman was one of the first Gulf Countries to establish Israel ties, but is in a more difficult and sensitive position than others due to its proximity to Yemen, which is essentially a colony of Iran to the extent controlled by Iran's Houthi proxies and is therefore subject to pressure from the Mullahs in Iran and also have naturally closer ties to Iran due to the fact that they aren't Sunnis but Ibadi Muslims with much in common with Shia Muslims.
Why would anyone should consider TLV as a stopover?
Or fly El Al over the ME3 carriers?
Unless per tabloids, you're an influencer transiting Dubai, where you did drugs a year earlier.
Houthis are only active in the opposite end of Yemen from Omani border, so it's far enough to have much impact. Yes, Oman-Iran relations are quite strong, but that doesn't mean establishing diplomatic relations with another country will jeopardize the existing ones.