From Reuters:
Oman said all airlines could overfly its territory as of Thursday, joining neighboring Saudi Arabia in providing a corridor for the national carriers of Israel, which neither Gulf state formally recognizes.While Saudi Arabia is staying out of the accords, the regional powerhouse has signalled tacit support by letting Israeli airlines overfly it en route to Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Manama.In July, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that Riyadh would allow unfettered Israeli overflights. But implementation had been on hold pending the agreement of Oman, as the Saudi corridor extends over its territory for easterly routes.
I hadn't realized that Oman's permission was needed for all Israeli overflights of Saudi Arabia, which was announced to much fanfare last year. So this is indeed a big deal as it cuts the times for Israeli flights to India and further east significantly.
The Mufti of Oman is displeased, though:
The Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, said, "We were surprised by the decision to open the airspace in a way that enables the Zionist entity's aviation to use it."He added, “We never took that into account, but rather we hoped that the steadfast stance would continue, rejecting any relationship with that entity from our proud authority; How proud we were of that [stance].”Sheikh Al-Khalili expressed his fear that “this step will be followed by other steps. Whoever retreats a step will soon take another step back.”He continued, "We kindly request that you review the account in this matter, and it is a national demand that all the proud Omani people adhere to."
It appears that Oman may have been prompted to change its rules because it hosted a meeting last week of a Task Force of the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. It would look bad for them to host the meeting while they were violating one of the articles of that convention by barring flights from Israeli airlines, so this decision might have been a precondition for them to hold the meeting in Oman.
