MUMBAI: The disinvestment-bound national carrier
Air India will deploy a 256-seater
Boeing 787-800 on the New Delhi-Tel Aviv route that will be launched from Thursday.
Air India had on March 7 announced a tri-weekly flights to
Tel Aviv from March 22, after Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that
Saudi Arabia had allowed India to fly over its territory.
It will deploy a 256-seater Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the new route, the airline said today.
Air India will fly over Oman, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to reach Israel, taking seven hours to the destination, making it the fastest air route between the two countries.
The duration of the flight between New Delhi and Tel Aviv will be around two hours shorter than the time taken by Israel's national carrier El Al, which has direct flights between Tel Aviv and Mumbai, Air India said in the statement.
The national carrier had planned to launch the service last May, but it couldn't materialise after some countries denied use of their airspaces for flights to Israel.
Many Arab and Islamic nations do not recognise Israel and, therefore, disallow airlines from using their airspace to reach Jewish nation.
The inaugural flight (AI 139) will take off from New Delhi at 1800 hrs on March 22 and arrive at Tel Aviv at 2145 hrs. The return flight (AI 140) will depart from Tel Aviv at 2315 hrs and reach New Delhi at 1000 hrs, the airline said.
However, from April 1, the flight will depart New Delhi at 1650 hrs and reach Tel Aviv at 2145 hrs with the return flight leaving from Tel Aviv at 2315 hrs to reach New Delhi at 0900 hrs, Air India said.
