Photo above – The airport team was led by H. E. Jamal Al Hai, Deputy CEO of Dubai Airports, accompanied by Eugene Barry, Executive Vice President of Commercial, Anita Mehra, Senior Vice President of Communication & Reputation, and Jochen Schnadt, Vice President of Aviation Business Management. The delegation from Israel included El Al’s Yoav Weiss, Regional Director for Asia, Africa & GCC, and Golan Ron, Area Manager for Ground Ops; Gad Amel, Vice President of Operations & Security at Arkia, and Moshe Talmor, Vice President of Ground Operations at Israir.
Dubai Airports, operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), received a delegation of representatives of Israeli airlines El Al, Israir and Arkia at its corporate offices at DXB on Tuesday morning. The delegation’s visit follows the signing of a number of bilateral agreements between the two countries, and the recently announced launch of regular commercial flight operations connecting Israel and the UAE.
Commenting on the delegation’s visit, His Excellency Jamal Al Hai, Deputy CEO of Dubai Airports said, “There is a lot of anticipation following the signing of the historic accords and both sides recognise the importance of enabling air connectivity as one of the first important steps to realising those expectations. Both sides are keen to open air travel as a first step towards facilitating people to people contact, tourism and trade, and accordingly our focus at the meeting was to understand the requirements of the airlines so that we can offer them and our mutual customers – the travellers, the top class experience that Dubai is known for worldwide.”
The two teams discussed preparations for the launch of new, direct air services between Dubai and Tel Aviv, including a twice daily service by El Al operating Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, six weekly flights by Israir operating the Airbus A320, and daily services by Arkia on the Embraer E-195 E-Jet aircraft, all scheduled for launch in December.
The new services will add an eminent destination to DXB’s existing global network of over 140 destinations, bringing more choice to travellers on both sides, and opening major opportunities for cargo and trade between the two countries.
