A commercial flight headed for Israel entered Saudi airspace on Thursday for the first time since the kingdom last month opened its skies to all flights, including those from Israel, according to data from a global flight tracking service.
The airline Cathay Pacific landed in Tel Aviv on Thursday morning from Hong Kong.
Flight paths marked on Flightradar24 showed the aircraft flying over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Gulf before moving over the Saudi coastline near Dammam.
The flight then passed over northern Saudi Arabia and Jordan, entering Israel north of the Dead Sea.
In July, Saudi Arabia announced it had opened its airspace to all civilian overflights just hours before Joe Biden became the first US president to directly fly from Israel to the kingdom.
At the time, Biden hailed the Saudi move as a “historic decision” and credited his administration with helping to bring the deal about.
Before the announcement, Saudi Arabia had barred overflights from both Israeli and non-Israeli companies that were travelling to or from Israel.
