EL AL Israel Airlines plans historic flight to Abu Dhabi on 31 August 2020

 Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

According to EL AL Israel Airlines, the Israeli national flag carrier plans to operate its first historic charter flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on 31 August 2020 using its B737-900 aircraft.

On 31 August 2020, EL AL flight LY971 plans to depart from Tel Aviv for Abu Dhabi at 10 am and touch down in Abu Dhabi at 2.35 pm where it will taxi overnight before leaving Abu Dhabi for Tel Aviv at 12.30 pm on 1 September 2020 and arriving in Tel Aviv at 3.15 pm under flight LY972.

The flight numbers are significant. 971 is the international country dialing code for the UAE while 972 is the international country dialing code for Israel.

EL AL Israel Airlines did not reveal the weekly frequency of the returned flight at press time and the mentioned flight timings under bilateral approval are subject to change without notice. 

According to The Times of Israel, Israel's Foreign Ministry as of 28 August 2020 was negotiating with Saudi Arabia over the possibility of LY971 flying over Saudi airspace and the matter is not final.

Checks with Israel Airports Authority's official web-site flight status database on 30 August 2020 show that LY971 is not a scheduled commercial flight. EL AL Israel Airlines resumes scheduled commercial flights to Addis Ababa and Zurich during the pandemic on 1 September 2020 under flight numbers LY8807 and LY8853.