As airlines avoid Israel, UAE's FlyDubai and Etihad keep up flights for both diplomacy and dollars

[November 15, 2024]  By JON GAMBRELL and TIA GOLDENBERG

BEN GURION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Israel (AP) — At Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, more than a year of war has taken its toll. Global airlines have canceled flights, gates are empty and pictures of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip guide the few arriving passengers to baggage claim.

But one check-in desk remains flush with travelers: the one serving flights to the United Arab Emirates, which have kept up a bridge for Israelis to the outside world throughout the war.

The Emirati flights, in addition to bolstering the airlines' bottom line, have shined a light on the countries’ burgeoning ties — which have survived the wars raging across the Middle East and could be further strengthened as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to office.

“It’s a political and economic statement,” said Joshua Teitelbaum, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. “They are the main foreign airlines that continue to fly.”

Since the wars began with Hamas’ initial Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, many international airlines have halted, restarted and halted again their flights into Israel’s main gateway to the rest of the world. The concern is real for the carriers, who remember the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine 10 years ago and Iran shooting down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 after takeoff from Tehran in 2020.

But FlyDubai, the sister airline to the long-haul carrier Emirates, has kept up multiple flights daily and kept Israel connected to the wider world even as its other low-cost competitors have stopped flights. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad has continued its flights as well.

While maintaining the flight schedule remains politically important for the UAE after its 2020 diplomatic recognition of Israel, it also provided a further shot in the arm for revenues — particularly for FlyDubai.

Since the wars started, international carriers such as Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., Germany’s Lufthansa and other major airlines halted their flights. Some resumed, only to stop again after Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel and Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic. Tehran has threatened to strike Israel again.

That’s brought major business to Israel's national carrier El Al, which had struggled in the coronavirus pandemic and prior years. The airline posted its best-ever half-year results this year, recording a $227 million profit as compared to $58 million profit in the same period last year. El Al stock has risen by as much 200% over the last year, as compared to a 29% rise in the wider Tel Aviv 125 stock market index.

El Al, however, lacks the routes and connections of major international carriers. Low-cost carriers as well have stopped flying into Israel during periods of the war, sending the price of El Al tickets ever higher. Passenger numbers through Ben Gurion halved compared to the same period the year before, El Al said in its second-quarter financial results.

However, FlyDubai has kept flying. The carrier has operated over 1,800 flights to Israel since October last year, cancelling only 77 flights overall, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. In September alone, it flew over 200 flights.

As a line snaked toward the FlyDubai check-in counters at Ben Gurion Airport, UAE-bound Motti Eis said the flights were "a symbol that the Emirates countries decided to keep the peace.”

Workers prepare a FlyDubai flight at Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)

FlyDubai declined to answer questions from The Associated Press about the flights.

Etihad, the flag carrier for Abu Dhabi, has kept flying into Tel Aviv, but the number of its flights has been dwarfed by FlyDubai. FlyDubai had 3.6% market share at Ben Gurion, compared to El Al’s 43.2% in the second half of 2024. However, at least two of the foreign low-cost airlines with greater market, Wizz Air and Blue Bird, stopped flying for extended periods this year.

Etihad said it maintains a close watch on the situation in the region, but continues its daily flights to and from Tel Aviv.

“Ben Gurion International Airport remains open, employing best practices in safety and security practices, enabling Etihad and other airlines to provide essential air connectivity as long as it is secure to do so,” the airline said in a statement.

But beyond the financial impact, the decision also takes root in the UAE’s decision to recognize Israel in 2020, under agreements brokered by then President Trump known as the Abraham Accords. While Abu Dhabi has repeatedly expressed concern and outrage as Israel’s conduct during the wars, Israel’s Consulate in Dubai and Embassy remain open in the country.

And while Dubai broadly speaking remains focused on business in the country, Abu Dhabi’s focus long has been on its geopolitical aims — which since the 2011 Arab Spring have been squarely focused on challenging Islamist movements, and those who back them, in the wider region. The UAE, a hereditary autocracy, long has viewed those groups as serious challenges to its power.

The Emirati government, in response to questions from the AP over the flights, sent a story published by its state-run WAM news agency about its participation in a Nov. 1 conference in Riyadh in support of a two-state solution to the decadeslong Israel-Palestinian crisis. The UAE has called repeatedly for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, along with the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

However, likely given the wider anger in the Arab world over Israel’s devastating militant campaign in Gaza, Dubai International Airport no longer advertises on its electronic billboard the location of the check-in for Tel Aviv. It sits in a distant corner of one of the airport’s terminals, next to a Dubai police stand. Private security guards also keep watch over the line, while individuals who appeared to be undercover police officers watched the gate, a higher level of security than normally noticed at the airport.

But in the lines, Hebrew and Arabic can be heard and those traveling routinely have their blue-backed Israeli passports out in their hands.

“It’s just a symbol of the UAE’s commitment to the relationship,” said Dina Esfandiary, a senior advisor on the Middle East at the International Crisis Group, a think tank. “No matter what happens, no matter where the war goes, no matter how much Israel flouts international law, the UAE has decided that this is a step they took, that the relationship remains beneficial to them.”
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.

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