After more than six months without direct flights to India, Air India has announced the resumption of operations on the Tel Aviv-Delhi route starting March 2, 2025 with five weekly flights.
Delhi serves as a significant hub for connecting flights to destinations in East Asia. With Air India's return to Ben Gurion Airport, it will become the only airline to operate direct flights between Israel and India.
The Indian national airline suspended operations in Israel after October 7, but recommenced operations relatively quickly compared with other airlines in March 2024. But the Iranian attack on Israel the following month led to the cancelation of the company's flights until May when flights were resumed until the escalation in the north in August.
El Al, which halted flights to Mumbai during the Covid pandemic had planned to resume the route after Oman gave Israeli carriers permission to fly over its airspace in February 2023, thus shortening the route by several airs. Arikia also planned to introduce direct flights to Sri Lanka but the outbreak of the war disrupted these plans.
Air India's announcement follows the announcement of the resumption of flights to Israel by other major airlines including Lufthansa Group, Air France, British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair. However, Air India is the first airline to resume long haul flights to Israel with no official announcement yet of the resumption of flights by US airlines and Air Canada.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 23, 2025.
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