On Oct. 8, Israeli and Jordanian civil aviation authorities signed a new aviation agreement that enables commercial flights to cross the airspace of both countries.

The deal will open more flight paths over both countries, thus considerably shortening flight times from Gulf states, the Far East and Asia to Europe and North America. For Israel, this could mean new flight paths departing from Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It could also mean a new path over Iran that would be used by flights taking off from China.

According to the agreement, for security reasons, Israel will approve each airline's flight paths in advance. For flight companies and for consumers, the deal is expected to save fuel, reduce emissions and contribute to the quality of the environment. In other words, flights will be shorter, direct and cheaper.

The agreement was signed after what was said to be several years of negotiations. It appears the recent normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Saudi Arabia's recent agreement to open its skies to flights from Israel, accelerated the negotiation process.