Next month, Israel will launch direct flights to Sharm el-Sheikh on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, expanding air links between the two nations.
According to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office, flights are expected to begin during the interim days of Passover next month from Ben Gurion International Airport to Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said: “This agreement will bring Egypt and Israel closer together.” Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed the new air link in September on the first visit by an Israeli premier to Egypt in a decade.
Over the past few days, an Israeli Shin Bet delegation visited to finalize the agreement. According to Bennett, Israel has been “opening up to the countries of the region, a longstanding recognition which is grounded in the peace between Israel and Egypt”.
There are already direct flights connecting Cairo with Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv.
Egyptian and Jordanian governments were the only Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel before 2020. They were later joined by Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, which all now have direct flights to Israel.
