Israel’s flag carrier El Al said it was forced to cancel repatriation flights Friday from Dubai which it had planned due to flydubai suspending service to Tel Aviv following an in-flight attack.
The transportation ministry said Israel had not yet secured the approval it needed in the United Arab Emirates to run the flights.
El Al said that Emirati authorities had not given landing permission for the two special flights which had been announced late Thursday. An El Al spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that the two flights scheduled Friday were cancelled with no new date set. El Al flights are still scheduled from Dubai to Tel Aviv starting on Sunday, with the airline notifying passengers that all seats are taken into the coming week. A co-pilot on Wednesday attacked the pilot of a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv and aimed to crash the plane, according to Israeli authorities.
Many Muslim-majority countries forbid entry to Israelis. The flights come during a heavy travel season for Israelis due to the holiday of Sukkot. El Al is selling tickets on the one-way repatriation flights for $249 each. Dubai has become one of the top destinations for Israelis since the United Arab Emirates in 2020 normalised relations with Israel and began forging close economic ties.
“As soon as approval is received from the authorities, we are prepared to carry out the special flights to Dubai and return the Israelis home as soon as possible,” El Al said in an online notice. The transportation ministry said that Israel could not go ahead with the special flights “due to the need to complete the necessary preparations and coordination” with security authorities in the United Arab Emirates. Israeli passengers said they overpowered the assailant and other pilots on the plane took over, diverting the aircraft to Saudi Arabia. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
