Israel's El Al to fly first flight to UAE by commercial carrier

El Al Airlines will Monday fly Israel's first flight to the United Arab Emirates by a commercial carrier, an airline spokesman said Friday, as the countries forge ahead with a deal to normalize ties. The direct flight between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and the UAE's political capital of Abu Dhabi is due to carry an Israeli delegation and top aides to US President Donald Trump, who brokered the Aug. 13 accord. Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner will be among the US officials on the El Al flight departing on Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), a US official said. A return flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, the El Al spokesman said, confirming timetable information on the Israel Airports Authority (IAI) website. IAI listed the flight number for the outbound leg as "LY 971" and the return leg as "LY 972", a nod to the UAE and Israel's respective country codes. "Next week for the first time there will be a commercial flight to Abu Dhabi. This is exactly what peace for peace looks like," Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted on Friday. There are no official air links between Israel and the UAE, and it was unclear whether El Al would be able to fly over Saudi Arabia, which has no official ties with Israel, to cut down on flight time. The exact flight route and landing time were still being worked on, the US official said.<br/>