Flydubai to become first foreign airline to resume flights to Israel Wednesday night

Emirati carrier Flydubai is set to be the first foreign airline to resume flight operations to Israel tonight, following the ceasefire agreement with Iran and the reopening of the country’s airspace.

Flydubai will resume its twice-daily flights on the Tel Aviv-Dubai route starting Wednesday night.

Cypriot airline TUS Airways and Greek airline Blue Bird Airways are expected to restart services to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday. TUS Airways will operate flights from Tel Aviv to Athens, Larnaca, and other destinations. Blue Bird Airways is scheduled to fly from Tel Aviv to Larnaca, Athens, and Sofia.

On Sunday, China-based Hainan Airlines is expected to resume direct flights between Tel Aviv and Beijing.

Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday evening began gradually returning to full operation. That’s as the country’s airspace remained largely closed during the past 12 days of conflict with Iran, except for restricted repatriation flights operated by Israeli airlines, El Al, Arkia and Israir.

On Wednesday, 12,000 passengers came through Ben Gurion Airport on about 88 international flights, both incoming and outgoing, operated by Israeli airlines, according to data by the Israel Airports Authority. About 10,300 passengers were expected to arrive in Israel on incoming flights, and about 1,700 were expected to depart on international flights.