El Al airplane
El Al airplaneiStock

Saudi Arabia has permitted an El Al plane that will operate a flight to the United Arab Emirates on Monday to fly over the country's skies, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia does not yet have official relations with Israel.

Channel 12 News reported on Thursday that the Saudis had agreed to allow the Israeli plane to pass over their skies due to the fact that senior American officials will be on board.

El Al is the Israeli airline that will carry out the first commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi. Three senior pilots have been reinstated for employment in view of the acceptance of the mission of the flight to the Emirates.

Earlier this week it was reported that US President Donald Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner will be on the first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi.

Channel 12 News reported that Kushner will visit Israel, from where he will continue to the UAE, accompanied by a delegation of dozens of experts in Israel from various fields, including medicine, aviation and security, and a team from the White House.

Over the past few years there have been rumors of rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but Saudi officials have denied those reports.

El Al, which operates four weekly flights to Mumbai, has expressed an interest in flying over Saudi airspace in order to reduce flight time.