Hello and welcome to the first flight report that describes a commercial flight between Israel and the UAE since launching diplomatic relations.
A short brief about israel normalize agreements with arab countries
On August 2020 Israel had signed on peace and normalize agreements with four Arab countries included United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. four months after the agreement was signed, commercial direct flights began to operate from Israel to the UAE and back.
LIST OF THE AIRLINES THAT FLY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE UAE
As September 2021 there are many airlines that fly between two countries:
El Al flies to Dubai with the 738, 739, 788 and the 789.
Israir flies to Dubai with the A320.
Arkia flies to Dubai with the A21N and the E95.
FlyDubai flies to Tel Aviv with the B3M8.
Etihad flies to Tel Aviv with 789 and A320.
Wizz Air flies from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv with the A21N.
All in all, there is a great competition on these two routes (DXB-TLV and AUH-TLV). Fares starts from 12$ per direction with Wizz Air.
BEFORE THE FLIGHT
I've checked the prices of the flight tickets from Tel Aviv to Dubai 2 months before the flights.
Firstly I wanted to try flyDubai but the price was expensive like 620$ for round trip tickets with only hand luggage.
Arkia was cheaper, flight price was around 320$ but it was boring to flight on a regular Embarer.
Than I saw El Al's flight for 390$ with a suitcase. I decided to move it on as the hours of the flight was great and the flight scheduled to operate with a brand new 787-9 Dreamliner, an airplane model that I didn't fly on.
Israelis are requested to have a VISA to Dubai, I made it for 110$. Also I had to bring a proof of a negative PCR test, I made it in TLV airport 48 hours before the flight for 10$.
day of the flight
I went out to the Airport at 9AM as the flight was scheduled to 1:10PM. TLV airport was pretty empty as tourist aren't allowed to visit Israel yet. Check in and security were fast and I had at least 2 hours to "burn" at the airside, so I made some spotting.
There were more than 12 flight from TLV to DXB and AUH on that day!
Spotting at tlv airport:
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-8 will depart to Addis Ababa (ADD), Ethiopia:
Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 landed from Kiev (KBP), Ukraine while United Airlines Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner will depart soon to Newark (EWR), NJ, USA:
Flydubai Boeing 737-800 landed from Dubai (DXB), United Arab Emirates:
Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed from Abu Dhabi (AUH), United Arab Emirates:
The duty free area in TLV Airport:
El Al Boeing 737-800 will depart later to Larnaca (LCA), Cyprus:
There aren't many flights of El Al today:
Waiting at gate D7 to board our flight to Dubai!
Our Airplane is waiting at the gate! A brand new 787-9 Dreamliner of El Al, reg 4X-EDJ
boarding the 787 dreamliner of el al
Boarding was quickly as the flight was 40% full, I was the first passenger to board the airplane so I had a great opportunity to explore the cabin
Premium Economy in 2-3-2 configuration:
Economy Class in 3-3-3 configuration:
Business Class in 1-2-1 configuration:
The pitch in Economy Class is quite good!
A giant 12" screen was in the seat before mine:
I got a kit with masks:
The planned route for today's flight with a total flight time of 3:30 hours:
Passengers board the aircraft;
Great view of the massive wing!
Taxi was made on time!
Our flight on flightradar24:
Taxi to Runway 08 bound to Dubai:
Take off and the flight
Flying over Jerusalem:
Flying near the Dead Sea, Entering into the Jordanian airspace:
The snack for today's flight was a bottle of water and a corned-beef sandwich, The sandwich wwas very tasty. No hot meals were delivered to Economy Class passengers due to the pandemic:
CABIN TOUR
THE REST OF THE FLIGHT
Israeli aircraft flies over the Saudi airspace!
Flying over Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
The games that were installed in the IFE:
Over the Saudi Desert! What a insane view!
There was a self-service bar at the rear galley of the aircraft! Nice thing for 3.5 hours flight!
Window was dimmed by me:
All in all, El Al's Economy Class is a wonderful product!
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getting closer to dubai and approaching
Starting our descend to DXB:
After a perfect landing in DXB airport!
Cabin after landing:
Taxing to our gate, you can see an A320 aircraft of Israir before take off to Tel Aviv (TLV), Israel:
Bye bye 789 Dreamliner and thanks to you and El Al's cabin crew for a wonderful flight, also in COVID times!
Taking our luggage and going to explore Dubai and the the amazing country !
Hi Yonatan, thanks so much for sharing this first report on the new and symbolically important TLV-DXB route!
Wow, that's so much traffic demand that was left on the table for years before normalisation of relations
That's a good-looking W cabin. Design is very chic. El Al have come a long way recently with cabin design
The Economy cabin looks quite nice as well, and the seat-back USB port is conveniently placed--much better than under the screen, as is more often seen.
The catering is a bit disappointing, but understandable for a short regional flight during the pandemic. A sandwich and snacks is fine for a 3h flight, but EY provide full hot meal on TLV-AUH.
Thanks for sharing!