BEN GURION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Israel — At Israel’s Ben Gurion Worldwide Airport, greater than a 12 months of battle has taken its toll. International airways have canceled flights, gates are empty and photos of hostages nonetheless held within the Gaza Strip information the few arriving passengers to baggage declare.
However one check-in desk stays flush with vacationers: the one serving flights to the United Arab Emirates, which have saved up a bridge for Israelis to the surface world all through the battle.
The Emirati flights, along with bolstering the airways’ backside line, have shined a light-weight on the nations’ burgeoning ties — which have survived the wars raging throughout the Center East and could possibly be additional strengthened as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to workplace.
“It’s a political and financial assertion,” stated Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Center Japanese research at Israel’s Bar-Ilan College. “They’re the principle overseas airways that proceed to fly.”
Because the wars started with Hamas’ preliminary Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, many worldwide airways have halted, restarted and halted once more their flights into Israel’s fundamental gateway to the remainder of the world. The priority is actual for the carriers, who bear in mind the downing of Malaysia Airways Flight 17 over Ukraine 10 years in the past and Iran capturing down Ukraine Worldwide Airways Flight 752 after takeoff from Tehran in 2020.
However FlyDubai, the sister airline to the long-haul service Emirates, has saved up a number of flights every day and saved Israel related to the broader world whilst its different low-cost opponents have stopped flights. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad has continued its flights as nicely.
Whereas sustaining the flight schedule stays politically necessary for the UAE after its 2020 diplomatic recognition of Israel, it additionally offered an additional shot within the arm for revenues — notably for FlyDubai.
Because the wars began, worldwide carriers resembling Atlanta-based Delta Air Traces Inc., Germany’s Lufthansa and different main airways halted their flights. Some resumed, solely to cease once more after Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile assault on Israel and Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic. Tehran has threatened to strike Israel once more.
That’s introduced main enterprise to Israel’s nationwide service El Al, which had struggled within the coronavirus pandemic and prior years. The airline posted its best-ever half-year outcomes this 12 months, recording a $227 million revenue as in comparison with $58 million revenue in the identical interval final 12 months. El Al inventory has risen by as a lot 200% over the past 12 months, as in comparison with a 29% rise within the wider Tel Aviv 125 inventory market index.
El Al, nevertheless, lacks the routes and connections of main worldwide carriers. Low-cost carriers as nicely have stopped flying into Israel during times of the battle, sending the worth of El Al tickets ever larger. Passenger numbers by Ben Gurion halved in comparison with the identical interval the 12 months earlier than, El Al stated in its second-quarter monetary outcomes.
Nonetheless, FlyDubai has saved flying. The service has operated over 1,800 flights to Israel since October final 12 months, cancelling solely 77 flights general, in keeping with Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. In September alone, it flew over 200 flights.
As a line snaked towards the FlyDubai check-in counters at Ben Gurion Airport, UAE-bound Motti Eis stated the flights had been “a logo that the Emirates nations determined to maintain the peace.”
FlyDubai declined to reply questions from The Related Press in regards to the flights.
Etihad, the flag service for Abu Dhabi, has saved flying into Tel Aviv, however the variety of its flights has been dwarfed by FlyDubai. FlyDubai had 3.6% market share at Ben Gurion, in comparison with El Al’s 43.2% within the second half of 2024. Nonetheless, no less than two of the overseas low-cost airways with higher market, Wizz Air and Blue Fowl, stopped flying for prolonged intervals this 12 months.
Etihad stated it maintains an in depth watch on the scenario within the area, however continues its every day flights to and from Tel Aviv.
“Ben Gurion Worldwide Airport stays open, using finest practices in security and safety practices, enabling Etihad and different airways to supply important air connectivity so long as it’s safe to take action,” the airline stated in an announcement.
However past the monetary impression, the choice additionally takes root within the UAE’s resolution to acknowledge Israel in 2020, beneath agreements brokered by then President Trump referred to as the Abraham Accords. Whereas Abu Dhabi has repeatedly expressed concern and outrage as Israel’s conduct in the course of the wars, Israel’s Consulate in Dubai and Embassy stay open within the nation.
And whereas Dubai broadly talking stays centered on enterprise within the nation, Abu Dhabi’s focus lengthy has been on its geopolitical goals — which for the reason that 2011 Arab Spring have been squarely centered on difficult Islamist actions, and people who again them, within the wider area. The UAE, a hereditary autocracy, lengthy has considered these teams as severe challenges to its energy.
The Emirati authorities, in response to questions from the AP over the flights, despatched a narrative revealed by its state-run WAM information company about its participation in a Nov. 1 convention in Riyadh in assist of a two-state answer to the decadeslong Israel-Palestinian disaster. The UAE has referred to as repeatedly for a cease-fire within the Gaza Strip, together with the discharge of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
Nonetheless, doubtless given the broader anger within the Arab world over Israel’s devastating militant marketing campaign in Gaza, Dubai Worldwide Airport now not advertises on its digital billboard the placement of the check-in for Tel Aviv. It sits in a distant nook of one of many airport’s terminals, subsequent to a Dubai police stand. Non-public safety guards additionally preserve watch over the road, whereas people who gave the impression to be undercover cops watched the gate, the next degree of safety than usually observed on the airport.
However within the traces, Hebrew and Arabic will be heard and people touring routinely have their blue-backed Israeli passports out of their palms.
“It’s only a image of the UAE’s dedication to the connection,” stated Dina Esfandiary, a senior advisor on the Center East on the Worldwide Disaster Group, a suppose tank. “It doesn’t matter what occurs, irrespective of the place the battle goes, irrespective of how a lot Israel flouts worldwide legislation, the UAE has determined that this can be a step they took, that the connection stays useful to them.”
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
