Israeli airlines have hit an unexpected obstacle in their quest for direct routes to Asia across the Arabian Peninsula after Oman refused to open its airspace to them.
Israel's Hayom daily said the sultanate had "caved" to pressure from Iran. Yoel Gozhanskya, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, pointed out that Tehran has been ramping up pressure on all of its regional allies to halt the normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel.
Israel had previously secured Saudi transit rights (with the exception of Israel Defence Force personnel), even though the Kingdom continues not to recognise Israel as a state. The decision was announced shortly before the visit of US President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia and was seen as a part of the wider process of improving Arab-Israeli relations, which picked up after the late 2020 Abraham Accords.
At the time, El Al Israel Airlines and Arkia Israeli Airlines said they were looking forward to the implementation of the decision, which would significantly shorten their existing and prospective flights to Asia and Australia. Currently, El Al has to bypass the entire Arabian Peninsula on its way to India, Thailand, and Australia. Arkia does not operate in that direction.
The agreement of Oman, which also does not recognise Israel but has a less adversarial relationship with the state than Saudi Arabia, was seen as a mere technicality. However, as Iran exerted political pressure regionally, Muscat proved a major obstacle. Without the right to cross either Omani or Iranian airspace, Saudi overflight rights would be relatively insignificant to Israeli carriers and would not shorten their flight times to Asia. Israeli carriers have been allowed to fly via Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain since the signing of the Abraham Accords.
