Arkia, Israel's second-largest airline, has announced direct flight services to Dubai, which will begin from 3 January 2021.

The announcement on Tuesday (20 October) is the first made by an Israeli airline for direct commercial flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the US-brokers normalization deal signed between the two countries on 15 September, The Times of Israel reported.

According to the company, the flights, the price of which will start at $149 for a one-way ticket, will cover the distance between Tel Aviv to Dubai in three to four hours.

In a statement, Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz said: "The decision to start a flight line to Dubai was made after increasing requests from our customers, private business clients and many requests from groups organizing conferences."

Besides Dubai, the airline was also planning flights to Sharjah, another major city in the UAE, as well as Bahrain.

Also on Tuesday (20 October), Etihad Airways Flight EY9607, the first commercial shuttle from the UAE to Israel, landed at the Ben-Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv, The Times of Israel reported.

The flight came a day after the two countries agreed to enable 28 weekly direct flights between their territories.

The flight arrived without passengers but later ferried an Israeli travel and tourism delegation to Abu Dhabi.

On Tuesday, a senior UAE delegation made a landmark visit to Israel, saying it wished to facilitate the reciprocal opening of embassies in Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi "as soon as possible".

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)