Premier Menachem Begin disclosed today that Egypt plans to establish a new airline to fly between Cairo and Tel Aviv. He told an Israel Army Radio reporter that President Anwar Sadat had informed him of this at their summit meeting in Aswan earlier this month.
Israeli observers had expected such a move. Egypt air, the Egyptian national air line, flies to many Arab capitals and might have been in danger of losing that business were it to inaugurate flights to Israel. Begin intimated, however, it may take some time before civilian flights between Israel and Egypt are begun by El Al and the new Egyptian carrier.
Although he had announced after the Aswan meeting that such flights would begin on Jan. 26, Begin noted today that Israeli and Egyptian civil aviation authorities have to complete their negotiations over landing rights and other technical matters. He expressed satisfaction with the atmosphere existing between Israel and Egypt and said he was convinced that normalization would proceed at a normal pace without undue haste or foot-dragging by either side.
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