Record-Breaking: Up To 14 Daily Flights From Israel To The UAE

The first commercial flight between the UAE and Tel Aviv was November 26th, 2020, almost exactly one year ago. Since then, the market has grown enormously, with seven airlines and up to 14 daily departures.

The UAE to Israel

Fifteen months ago, Israel and the UAE announced a historic peace agreement, with formal diplomatic relations between the pair. It with followed shortly after by Israel-Bahrain. Unlike the long-standing so-called 'cold agreement' with Egypt and Jordan, these are 'warm agreements'.

Around 70,000 flew between Tel Aviv and the Middle East in 2019, booking data shows, with Dubai the largest point-to-point market. When data is available for full-year 2021, it'll be fascinating to see how the P2P market has grown. Moreover, approximately two million people were carried between Tel Aviv and Asia-Pacific and Africa, with over half of passengers transiting.

El Al 787 — El Al has up to two daily flights to Dubai. While it's mainly a B737 route, the B787 operates too. Photo: Getty Images.

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Seven airlines from the UAE to Israel

The country market has seven airlines. Emirates will launch on December 6th with a once-daily B777-300ER service. Its schedule will complement rather than compete with narrowbody partner flydubai.

Meanwhile, Wizz Air's next flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv isn't until December 16th. It was meant to be once-daily months ago but will run three-weekly until the end of winter before becoming once-daily from March 27th, the first day of the aviation summer season.

There are 1,181 departures between the UAE and Israel from November 23rd (the day of writing) and March 26th, according to schedules information available from Cirium. With four in ten flights (42%), flydubai is highly dominant. If Emirates is included, the pair has over half the market (51%).

flydubai: 495 departures from Dubai to Tel Aviv from November 23rd to March 26th
Israir: 195
El Al: 183
Emirates: 111
Arkia: 109
Etihad: 52
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi: 44

Photo: Wizz Air.

Up to 14 daily flights

There are up to 14 departures daily between the two nations in the period examined, Cirium indicates. These occur on just two days: December 8th and December 30th. More flights by Israir generally explain the higher number.

As the figure below shows, the number of flights varies enormously, from five daily (November 27th) upwards. The median is ten per day. Fewer flights tend to be on Saturdays due to no services by Israeli carriers.

UAE to Israel_ daily departures, Nov. 23rd to Mar. 26th — The number of flights per day varies wildly. Source of data: Cirium.

A look at a peak day

The following is due to operate on December 30th, organized by departure time from the UAE. flydubai and Israir have four departures apiece, El Al two, and one each by Arkia, Emirates, Etihad, and Wizz Air. Some 2,735 outbound seats are available for sale that day, 183% more than the same day last year.