The agreement will enable Israeli passport holders to travel to Amman with Arkia and connect, on the same booking, to approximately 20 Qatar Airways routes in East Asia and Africa.
By AVI KRAWITZarkia logo 88(photo credit: )Arkia has signed a special prorate agreement with Qatar Airways, the company said Tuesday, marking the first time such partnership has been forged between an Israeli and a Gulf state airline.
The agreement will enable Israeli passport holders to travel to Amman with Arkia and connect, on the same booking, to approximately 20 Qatar Airways routes in East Asia and Africa. Under the agreement, Arkia will get special rates from Qatar for the connection on its ticket.
Arkia said that in light of the agreement it has arranged a schedule to ensure an easy connection to the Qatar flights. From December, it will operate two weekly flights to Amman, on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will change to Monday and Wednesday in January.
On Monday, Qatar Airways was presented with the award for being the best airline in the Middle East at the World Travel Market in London. It flies to 66 destinations and recently signed a $5.1 billion deal with Airbus for an additional 34 aircraft, which will bring its fleet to 52 by the end of 2008.
With its fleet of 14 aircraft, Arkia carried 71,469 passengers in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport in the high season months of September and October.
