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DUBAI, Jan 11, (AP): A Qatar Airways jetliner landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday, completing the first direct flight from Doha to Riyadh since the kingdom’s boycott of the tiny, energy-rich state in 2017.
Qatari Khaled, 12, is hugged by his aunt as he arrives on the first Qatar Airways plane in three years to land at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Jan 11. Saudi Arabia, along with the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, ended a three-year-old dispute with Qatar following a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in AlUla last week. (AP)
The resumption of direct flights came after regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia reopened its borders and airspace with Qatar last week, paving the way for a broader rapprochement. At an annual Gulf summit meeting in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia, representatives of the four boycotting countries signed a pledge to resolve the bitter dispute that has fragmented the typically clubby Gulf Cooperation Council and troubled America
The first commercial flight between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in three and a half years
1 of 17 Qatari Khaled, 12, is hugged by his aunt as he arrives on the first Qatar Airways plane in three years to land at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. Image Credit: AP
2 of 17 A mask-clad passenger checks in at Qatar s Hamad International Airport, on January 11, 2021, to take the first commercial flight to Saudi Arabia in three and a half years following a Gulf diplomatic thaw. The first commercial flight between Qatar and Saudi in three and a half years took off from Doha at 1:45 PM local time.