FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Does BA avoid overflying Israel (if it has go through Saudi Arabia)?
Old Nov 27, 2023 | 3:41 am
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raghu
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Does BA avoid overflying Israel (if it has go through Saudi Arabia)?

In July 2022, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to flights to Israel.
But BA seems to avoid Israeli airspace if flying through Saudi airspace, before or after.

See today's flight paths for BA118 (BLR-LHR) - and compare that with BA276 (HYD-LHR).
After Qatar, the flight paths diverge - and BA118 takes a circuitous route avoiding Israel.
I noticed the same thing for inbound too, with BA119 that started on Sunday (Nov 26) from LHR taking a circuitous route avoiding Israel.

I have seen the same, while flying a few times on BA from LHR to India (or from India to LHR).
Either they go north through Turkey and Iraq, or south through Egypt (Sinai) and Saudi Arabia -- but not over Israel.

Also, the southern route adds quite a bit of extra time -- curious, why would one BA flight take the northern route after Qatar (e.g., BA276 today) even while another BA flight a short while later takes the southern route, and completely avoids Israel even if it means the flight is delayed quite a bit?
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