Airlines
Gulf Air To Forge Ties with El Al, Launch Tel Aviv Service
An MOU between Gulf Air and El Al calls for the start of negotiations over code-share arrangements, maintenance cooperation, and other ties.

Bahrain’s Gulf Air became the latest Middle East airline to signal an intention to forge ties with Israel’s El Al with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to discuss codeshare and other cooperation during an official visit from the Kingdom of Bahrain to Israel. The MOU, signed at the Hilton Tel Aviv by Gulf Air chairman Zayed Alzayani and El Al chairman David Brodet, accompanied the announcement of the planned launch of twice-weekly Gulf Air flights to Tel Aviv starting on January 7. The MOU signing and disclosure of the airline’s newest destination follows the recent normalization of relations between Bahrain and Israel and the subsequent political, commercial, and civil aviation agreements signed between the two countries.