Direct flights between the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv and Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh started on Sunday. Tel Aviv’s first direct trip to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh took off on Sunday, Israel’s national carrier El-Al reported.

Sun d’Or subsidiary flight 5193 departed Ben Gurion International Airport at 0715 GMT, the airline stated in a statement.

Direct flights between Tel Aviv and Cairo have been in service since Egypt became the first Arab country to conclude a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Recently, the two countries have strengthened their connections.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited Egypt twice after assuming office in June and met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in September.

In early October, an Egyptair-branded jet made its maiden landing in Israel, a flight termed as “historic” by the Israel Airport Authority.

Previously, Egyptian flights to Israel were operated by an Egyptair subsidiary, Air Sinai, which was established expressly for the Israeli route and did not fly the Egyptian flag on its planes’ exteriors.

Certain segments of Egypt’s population continue to oppose relations with the Jewish state.

The Egyptian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which opposes Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas, has called for a boycott of two Israeli-organized dance events scheduled for Sinai in the coming days.

Until 2020, the only Arab states that have normalized ties with Israel were Egypt and Jordan.

They were joined the next year by Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, which all now provide direct flights to Israel.