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Early on Saturday, the first plane carrying Israelis returning to their country from the UAE landed in Tel Aviv, after Flydubai temporarily suspended its flights to Israel, according to the website of the Israel Airports Authority.
The arrival of the plane came after events on Wednesday on a Flydubai flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv, which officials say narrowly avoided a disaster.
This follows the incident on Wednesday, when a Flydubai plane bound for Tel Aviv was forced to make an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, following suspicion of an attempted hijacking by the co-pilot, while the plane was carrying 172 people, mostly Israelis.
The UAE judiciary confirmed on Thursday that it had begun investigating the incident, and that the Attorney General had directed "to verify the extent of its connection to any terrorist activity or purpose or the existence of prior planning or direction for it"
The Arkia Israeli low-cost airline plane arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from Dubai after 1 a.m. according to the airport.
The Times of Israel reported on Friday that Israeli media reported "the launch of the first flight to repatriate Israeli travelers stranded in Dubai", adding "this flight is operated by the Israeli airline Arkia"
Before that, the Israeli airline El Al announced the cancellation of flights scheduled for Friday to repatriate Israelis from Dubai.
The company spokesperson said that no new date had been set for those flights.
The Israeli Ministry of Transport stated that it cannot operate private flights at the moment "due to the need to complete preparations and coordination" with the security authorities in the United Arab Emirates "to allow flights to operate"
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