An EgyptAir plane. Photo: Wikipedia

i24 News – EgyptAir’s first direct commercial flight from Cairo to Tel Aviv touched down at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday at approximately 11:08 am local time, signaling the start of regular operations between the two countries.

The Airbus A220-300 plane was greeted on the runway with celebratory water jets.

The state-owned flag carrier of Egypt is expected to fly the route four times a week.

Previously, the only flights between Ben Gurion Airport and Cairo International Airport were operated discreetly by Air Sinai, a subsidiary of EgyptAir. The Air Sinai flights were unmarked without the Egyptian flag.

Air Sinai was established in 1982 under the terms of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty which stipulated that there must be active civilian aviation routes between the two countries.

EgyptAir did not schedule any flights to Israel for political reasons, but ties between the two countries have been warming, especially with Israel’s new government taking an active role.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met last month in Sharm el-Sheikh with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The visit marked the first time an Israeli prime minister has traveled to the country in more than ten years.

Bennett called the meeting “important and very good” upon his return to Israel, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, adding that the two leaders “created an infrastructure for a deep connection to the way forward.”