After nearly three months of no flights from Israel to China, an Israir Airlines Airbus 320 took off Sunday morning for Kazakhstan and from there to China to bring medical equipment back to Israel.
Among other cargo, the plane will carry home some two million protective masks and arrive back in Israel on Monday morning.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Israir was cleared for the cargo flight and is now expected to perform additional similar flights to the Far East.
The airline has also been greenlighted for cargo flights to Europe, among other places, and has already carried out more than 40 rescue flights in recent weeks to bring stranded Israeli across the globe back to Israel. El Al, too, is carrying out cargo flights, primarily with its Boeing 777s, which have been stripped of their passenger seats and converted to cargo planes.
Last Thursday, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong landed in Israel, some two months after all flights to Hong Kong were canceled. The Boeing 777 that landed in Israel delivered medical equipment.
As of Sunday night, only two airlines will operate international flights out of Ben Gurion International airport – United Airlines, which flies to New York, and Ethiopian Airlines, which flies to Addis Ababa.
According to reports out of Russia, meanwhile, Moscow will shut down the country's skies on Sunday night, meaning that Aeroflot will also cease its flight to Israel.
