Egypt’s national carrier on Sunday made the first official direct flight to Israel since the two countries signed a historic 1979 peace treaty, when an EgyptAir plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
The airline’s subsidiary, AirSinai, has flown to Israel without the company’s logo for decades, fearing public reaction. The national carrier will now operate three weekly EgyptAir-branded flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Embassy in Cairo tweeted that direct flights are “an important and welcome sign of the strengthening of bilateral ties between the two countries, especially economic relations.”
Bahraini-based GulfAir made its first direct flight to Israel last week, further strengthening the commercial ties established since the signing of the Abrahamic Accords between Israel and four Arab states last year.
The Sunday flight came two weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made the first public visit to Egypt by an Israeli leader in more than a decade. He met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai as a sign of warming relations between the two countries.
In August, Israel canceled long-standing advice for its citizens regarding travel to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which was seen as a gesture towards its strategic partner.