El Al withdraws high court appeal against flights via Saudi airspace

El Al withdrew a petition to Israel's Supreme Court that sought to restrict any new services to the country via Saudi Arabia's airspace until it could also use the shortened route (Reuters, 26-Jul-2018). El Al said its decision followed a hearing on the matter on 18-Jul-2018 but did not provide further details. As previously reported by CAPA, Israel's Supreme Court reportedly earlier advised El Al to drop a petition it filed in Mar-2018 against Air India's direct route from New Delhi to Tel Aviv. In its petition against Air India, the state of Israel, the Ministry of Transportation and the Israel Airports Authority, El Al requested the court to either secure permission for its airlines to pass over Saudi Arabia airspace or prohibit Air India to have the same access. Air India is the first commercial airline to be allowed to operate to/from Israel over Saudi Arabia, which does not maintain official diplomatic ties with Israel.