Emirates will make its long-awaited debut in Tel Aviv (TLV) in June as air traffic between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel continues to increase.

The route from Dubai (DXB) was originally scheduled to launch in December 2021 but travel restrictions imposed following the spread of the omicron variant delayed the plans.

The airline’s first flights between the cities will now take off on June 23. Daily service will be offered using a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, equipped with eight first class suites, 42 business class seats and 304 economy seats.

Emirates’ entry to the Israeli market comes after the UAE and Israel reached an agreement in August 2020 to normalize relations, becoming only the third Israel-Arab peace deal since Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. A treaty, which recognizes each state’s sovereignty, was signed the following month.

Since the détente, several carriers have entered the market with nonstop routes, resulting in significant passenger growth between the nations.

Sabre Market Intelligence data shows that O&D traffic between Israel and the UAE totaled 13,486 two-way passengers in 2019—all of whom traveled indirect. Amman ({{AMM}}) in Jordan followed by the Turkish airports Istanbul Airport ({{IST}}) and Sabiha Gökçen ({{SAW}}) were the top three connecting markets.

Preliminary figures for 2021 suggest that the O&D traffic grew to about 166,000 two-way passengers in 2021, with almost 99% of those flying nonstop. Dubai-Israel traffic alone was around 154,000 passengers.

The latest schedules filed with OAG show that Emirates will compete directly in the DXB-TLV market with Arkia, El Al Israel Airlines and Israir, which fly 9X-weekly, 18X-weekly and 11X-weekly respectively. Emirates’ codeshare partner flydubai also operates the route 4X-daily.

In addition, Etihad Airways and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi serve the Abu Dhabi (AUH)-Tel Aviv market 3X-weekly and 5X-weekly respectively.

Emirates outbound flight from Dubai will depart at 3.50 p.m., arriving in Tel Aviv at 6 p.m. local time. The return service departs at 7.55 p.m. and arrives back in Dubai at 11.59 p.m. The carrier said schedules have been timed to provide onward connections to destinations like Thailand, India, Philippines, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The new service to Tel Aviv will also provide 20 tonnes of cargo capacity on each flight, offering channels for Israeli businesses and start-ups to export products like pharmaceuticals, high-tech goods, fruits and vegetables and other perishables.

The flights are also expected to transport manufacturing raw materials and components, semiconductors and e-commerce parcels into Israel.

DXB-TLV