According to Oman's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Gulf Arab state's airspace is open to all civilian carriers, allowing Israeli airlines to rely on a Saudi-Oman corridor to cut flight times.

Saudi Arabia, which like Oman does not have formal ties with Israel, last summer said it would open its airspace to all air carriers, but Israeli officials had said the corridor could not be implemented until Muscat consented.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the Sultanate's airspace is open to all carriers that meet the requirements for overflying, in a statement posted on its Twitter account. “Enforcing international and local requirements against discrimination in dealing with civilian aircraft,” the authority said.

In a statement on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen thanked Oman's ruler Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said for the decision, describing it as "historic and significant for the Israeli traveler as well as the economy."

As part of US President Joe Biden's visit to the region last summer, the United States and Israel sought to build on normalisation pacts between Israel and two Gulf Arab nations.

Saudi Arabia, which gave tacit approval to the US-brokered pacts inked by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020, has allowed airlines, including Israeli carriers, to overfly its territory on flights to and from the two countries.

The Saudi-Omani corridor would expand such overflights to other destinations.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the corridor would shorten the flight route to Asia by more than two hours to some destinations.