Emirates airline launches Kosher Arabia to produce meals for Jewish customers

The Emirates airline group announced Thursday it will set up a production facility for kosher meals in the UAE to serve to Jewish customers, two days after the UAE and Israel signed a deal to normalize ties.

Dubai-based Emirates, the largest airline in the Middle East, is expected to start flying to Israel by the end of the year, Israeli and Emirati officials have said.

Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) was already offering kosher meals to its passengers via an outsourced supplier, but now it says it will “set up a dedicated production facility” expected to be up and running by January 2021 at its premises in the UAE.

Read more: How the UAE is ‘keeping kosher’ for Jewish tourists after Israel deal

The new facility will be set up as a partnership with CCL Holdings dubbed “Kosher Arabia,” EKFC said in a statement.

“With recent developments we expect that demand for kosher food in the UAE and region will grow quickly,” Emirates Flight Catering CEO Saeed Mohammed said in the statement.

“We will also explore opening restaurants across Dubai and the GCC (the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council).”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed US-brokered agreements at the White House on Tuesday to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, Bahrain’s FM Abdullatif Al Zayani and UAE FM Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan wave from the White House balcony, Sept. 15, 2020. (Reuters)

The UAE is the first Gulf country to reach such an accord with Israel and only the third Arab country, after Jordan and Egypt.

On August 31, an El Al airliner carrying a joint Israeli-US delegation landed in Abu Dhabi on the first direct commercial flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital.

Read more:

Israel, UAE foreign diplomats meet publicly for first time in Africa

For insulting Erdogan, over 3,800 sentenced to prison in Turkey in 2019: Report

Coronavirus: Dubai fines 12 businesses, warns five for violating COVID-19 measures