First Qatar to Saudi flight takes off after thaw

First Qatar to Saudi flight takes off after thaw

First Qatar to Saudi flight takes off after thaw

30 minutes ago

A Qatar Airways plane takes off at Hamad International Airport in Doha on Monday. Ibraheem Al Omari/Reuters

Gulf Today Report

Qatar Airways has resumed flights to Saudi Arabia from on Monday as the neighbours normalise ties under a landmark agreement that ended a bitter three-year rift and allows families to reunite.

The quartet agreed to lift the restrictions at a Gulf Cooperation Council summit last week in the Saudi desert city of Al Ula, after a flurry of diplomatic activity by outgoing US President Donald Trump's administration.

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The first commercial flight between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in three and a half years, a Qatar Airways service to Riyadh, took off from windswept Doha airport around 1100 GMT and was due to touch down at 1210 GMT.

Reporters gather near a Qatar Airways as the first commercial flight to Saudi Arabia in three years. AFP

Airport staff filmed aircraft taxiing on the runway in anticipation of the departure, according to an AFP correspondent on the ground.

Economy tickets for flight QR1164 aboard an Airbus A350 were on sale for around $650 one way to cover the roughly 600