Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Saudi Arabia opens airspace to Israeli flights

The move saves time for flights to Asia but also points to warming relations between the two countries

(JTA) — Saudi Arabia fully opened its airspace to Israeli flights for the first time, the latest sign of the two countries’ warming relations.

The country’s civil aviation authority announced the change on Friday, as President Joe Biden flew into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a conference of Gulf states.

Until now, Israeli flights to and from Asia had to detour around Saudi Arabian airspace. The move saves flyers hours of time and symbolizes a steadily growing cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia on logistical and security issues.

In the leadup to his first presidential trip to Israel this week, Biden pushed for increased diplomacy between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which has opened up since 2020, the year of the first Abraham Accords signings. Saudi Arabia has so far avoided formally signing onto the treaty, which has normalized relations between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors.

“I will also be the first president to fly from Israel to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia,” Biden wrote in a Washington Post op-ed ahead of his trip. “That travel will also be a small symbol of the budding relations and steps toward normalization between Israel and the Arab world, which my administration is working to deepen and expand.”

Biden, echoing the views of a growing group of American lawmakers, is also a supporter of a defense alliance between Israel, Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations meant to counter Iran’s aggression in the region. Biden is expected to discuss that prospect in Jeddah on Saturday. 

“This decision is the result of the President’s persistent and principled diplomacy with Saudi Arabia over many months, culminating in his visit today,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Friday about the opened airspace.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version