As Qatar and Saudi Arabia normalised their ties under a landmark agreement last week, the two countries resumed flights on Monday, reported AFP.

Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt, slapped a blockade on Qatar in June 2017, which included closing air travel to the country over claims that it backed Islamist groups and was too close to Iran.

Qatar has always denied the charges.

Also read: Indonesian couple reserves entire flight to Bali to avoid getting COVID-19

All the four countries agreed to lift restrictions from Qatar at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit after a flurry of diplomatic activity by outgoing US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The first commercial flight between Qatar and Saudi Arabia in three and a half years, a Qatar Airways service to Riyadh, took off from Doha airport around 1100 GMT.

A Saudi Airlines jet is also scheduled to fly on Monday from Riyadh to Doha, departing the kingdom at 1340 GMT according to its online schedule, with services from Jeddah expected to start at a later date.

Just as the first flight to Riyadh was preparing to take off, Qatar Airways tweeted that services to Jeddah and Dammam would resume later in the week.

Bahrain and the UAE have also opened their airspace to Qatari aviation under the deal but there has been no word on when the first direct flights will take off.

Saudi Arabia’s closure of its airspace has forced Qatar Airways aircraft to fly over Iran, Riyadh’s arch-rival and long-time adversary of Washington, paying significant overflight fees to Tehran in the process.