El Al opened Israel’s first regular air service to Czechoslovakia on Tuesday night.
Flight 521 took off at 7:15 p.m. on the three-hour flight to Prague and was due back at Ben-Gurion Airport at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday.
The Israeli national airline had flown to most Eastern European capitals before the Communist bloc broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1967. But it never served Prague.
Arrangements to fill the gap began when President Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia visited Israel last year.
El Al sources said the Czechoslovak capital would not be used as a pickup point for Soviet Jews immigrating to Israel. They will continue to travel via Budapest, Warsaw or Bucharest until the Soviet Union permits direct flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv.
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