Iraqi commercial jets can use Israeli airspace; means cheaper, more direct flights, after Jordan-Israel accord

by **GirlBye** Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:19 am

Iraqi commercial jets can use Israeli airspace; means cheaper, more direct flights, after Jordan-Israel accord

Israeli passenger planes. (Photo: AFP)

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – Israel and Jordan reached an agreement last week that would allow several Arab countries to use Israeli airspace for commercial flights to Europe and North and South America. Among the countries specified in the agreement are Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE.)
Flights originating in the Kurdistan Region would also, presumably, be able to use new routes through Israeli airspace.
The understanding will shorten flight times and cut fuel costs, along with pollution from the aircraft. For passengers, it will mean more direct flights to more destinations, at a cheaper cost.

The agreement follows on the “Abraham accords,” which were signed last month in Washington and which normalized relations between Israel and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain. In conjunction with those accords, Saudi Arabia and Israel agreed to permit commercial aircraft to use each other’s airspace. That aviation agreement, in turn, contributed to the new understanding between Israel and Jordan.
The agreement was reached between civil aviation authorities and airport authorities in Israel and Jordan and permits third parties to fly over both countries. For security purposes, however, Israel will issue advance approval for the flight plan of each airline.

For the past decade, most commercial airlines have avoided Syrian airspace, because of the country’s civil war. But now passenger aircraft departing from Iraq can simply fly due west to the Mediterranean and beyond, using Jordanian and Israeli airspace.
“This is a successful conclusion to negotiations that started several years ago, but that were accelerated and completed only after the signing of the peace agreement with the UAE and the historic permit for Israeli flights over Saudi Arabia,” a joint Jordanian-Israeli statement announcing the agreement stated.

Jordan has had a peace agreement with Israel since 1994. However, 70 percent of the country’s population is Palestinian, and the failure to reach a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s—despite strenuous efforts by the George H. W. Bush administration and then the Clinton administration—has left only a cold peace between Amman and Jerusalem.
Miri Regev, Israeli Minister of Transport, hailed the agreement, affirming that “Israel is becoming more and more integrated into the region.”

“We are opening new forms of cooperation in transport, business, and diplomacy with countries that share borders with us and have similar interests and a common vision of regional peace,” she continued. “I hope that we shall soon be able to announce further developments.”

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/d6b29342-e817-42cf-98d4-70e68ac22afb