Israeli airlines plan to expand and open new routes to India and other Asian destinations after Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to all carriers, which will save fuel costs and reduce flight times, Reuters reported.

Riyadh said its airspace will be open to all airlines, including Israeli airlines that previously had a Saudi corridor only for destinations in the Persian Gulf, such as the United Arab Emirates, also including various Asian routes.

Both flagship carrier El Al Israel Airlines and smaller competitor Arkia have already applied for permission to fly over Saudi airspace, they said Sunday, which would cut flights to India and Thailand by about 2-1/2 hours.

Current routes to these destinations, which are popular with Israelis, bypass Saudi airspace.

Faster and more direct routes also mean less fuel consumption. That, in turn, will improve El Al's efficiency by allowing it to use smaller planes on the Mumbai route and save fuel on its nearly daily flights to Thailand, said Shlomi Am Shalom, an El Al spokesman.

 Arkia said it plans to begin flights to Goa in November and is considering new destinations, such as Thailand and Sri Lanka, using Airbus A321neoLR aircraft.

Israeli Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov said that flights over Saudi Arabia are likely to start "in a few weeks" and that airfares will eventually become about 20% cheaper.

However, Israeli airlines have been less forthright about lowering prices.