Canada Global (Web News) The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Oman said on Thursday that the airspace of the Gulf Arab nation will be available to all commercial carriers, allowing Israeli airlines to use a Saudi-Oman corridor to shorten flight durations to Asia.
Saudi Arabia, which like Oman has no diplomatic connections with Israel, said last summer that it would open its airspace to all airlines. Nevertheless, Israeli authorities had insisted that Muscat’s approval was required before the corridor could be put into place.
the sultanate’s airspace is open to all carriers that meet the requirements of overflying, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed in a statement posted on its Twitter account. “Enforcing international and local requirements against discrimination in dealing with civilian aircraft,” the CAA said.
Eli Cohen, the foreign minister of Israel, congratulated Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said of Oman on Thursday and called the decision “historic and vital for the Israeli economy and the Israeli traveller.”
While the United States and Israel worked to advance normalisation agreements between Israel and two Gulf Arab states, one of the main goals of U.S. President Joseph Biden’s visit to the area last summer was to open Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel.
Saudi Arabia authorised aircraft, including Israeli carriers, to overfly its territory on flights to and from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020, giving implicit support to the agreements negotiated by the United States.
