I would like to go to Dubai as well soon but I think that Israeli arrivals to DXB need to undergo a PCR test on arrival and then isolate at their hotels - https://www.emirates.com/english/hel...ents/tourists/

Looking at anecdotal feedback (Tripadvisor forum) this can take between 8 and 48hrs. So for a short trip it would be annoying if you were stuck for upto 2 days in your hotel room.

J

 

From Globes - over 60 weekly TLV-DXB flights from next month:

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-o...nth-1001350864

 

How many passenger seats is that in total across those 60 flights?

I guess this will fly or not fly well just yet, based on how the conditions are in these two countries with regard to self-isolation/quarantine requirements (or concerns about that) for December travel.

I am counting on it not being like the Hotel California where you can check in but never check out.

At least the Emirati carriers often try to attract short/mid-haul market customers with weekend/sub-week-long excursion fares that are affordable for (and bring in) mass market tourists. I don't expect TLV-UAE in economy class fares in December to be much worse than the high fares I'm getting hit with for sub-800 mile trips in Europe and in the US; if anything, I expect the UAE-serving tickets to be a sort of bargain if the market isn't too restricted because of the Covid-19 situation on one or both ends of the journey.

 

Watching channel 12 news a couple of nights ago it was mentioned that Israeli airlines were possibly not going to get permission to fly over Saudi airspace for a while. I guess this will have a major impact on the 60 flights a week.

J

 

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-s...hts-1001351221

Yes it is a potentially big problem. Especially for me - just got to Dubai now, booked one way on Flydubai there and return on Israir on Thursday. I would think thay Bibi and MBS will sort this out in time. The saudis already allowed some one-off Israeli flights so the taboo of Israeli overflights has already been broken.

 

In time, yes. The issue now is that MBS's father and his diminished camp is currently annoyed by MBS going around the king and unilaterally pulling off that Netanyahu visit without his dad's approval, and then -- to add insult to injury -- the MBS camp leaking out a video to publicly make his father look disoriented/enfeebled. The question really turns out to be how many Israel-serving flights will MBS allow over Saudi airspace in December before his father finds out and tries to put a stop to it, or if MBS will hold off for a bit so as not to find out who really is king still. MBS's father is not a fan of Netanyahu, and this covered potential disruption in flight service is a sign of just that.

 

you should be ok

Israir received the overflight rights from the KSA

 

My corona test on arrival in dubai took 19 hours to get results. The DXB smart covid app they tell you to download is useless - three days later it still does not show my results. I found my results on the purehealth.ae website the testing company. We got a text message only for my wifes results. But both our results were on the website at the same time.

 

Did anyone notice on Flightaware that Israeli airlines (Arkia and Israir) take a longer route by half an hour than FlyDubai? The former cross Saudi Arabia and then turn north into DXB. The latter take a more direct route, that skirts just north of Qatar. Since Israel and Qatar don't have diplomatic relations, are the Israeli carriers trying extra hard to avoid the airspace? But wouldn't flights going to or from Israel be impacted on all competitors?

 

Interesting - I doubt it's about Qatar, since the UAE (and Saudi) has had an embargo on Qatar -- including flights and overflights -- since 2017. I'll bet it's about keeping distance from Iran and the Iranian navy.

 

That's my take as well. They seem to fly south from DXB along the Omani border, then curve west over Saudi airspace and continue straight on to TLV.

However, I'm pretty sure that in the initial flight paths from the one-off flights back in September/October, some of the Israeli planes did in fact fly over the Gulf on their approach into the UAE. Maybe this is to avoid reprisals following the Iranian nuke guy's demise.

 

I've never seen this before on Flightradar. I'm not sure if it's just because I haven't paid attention, or if it's a change in policy. A Lufthansa flight on its way to the Maldives, overflying what appears to be Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, UAE, and Oman. As far as I can remember, airlines have generally flown south of Israel on similar routings. Is this something new, or have I just been sleeping in class?

 

It wouldn't surprise me at all. Why would the Saudis care about a German plane if they're already letting Israeli planes overfly? Plus don't countries get money from airlines that overfly their territory?

Just checked flight trackers, and the same flight took the same routing on other days in November.

 

As did several KLM flights in recent weeks. But many still take a southern route and fly over Sinai. Not sure why.

Shuly

 

This flight route has been enabled during last October, which is when Israel and Jordan signed a new agreement allowing flight to overfly both countries on their way east. For now, this flight route is only enabled during nighttime, which may explain why some airlines are still flying over Sinai.
See (Hebrew): https://www.themarker.com/news/aviat...mium-1.9219400 and https://www.calcalist.co.il/local/ar...856190,00.html