Israeli President Isaac Herzog travelled to his destination aboard a scheduled commercial Azerbaijan Airlines flight, a routing that bypassed Türkiye's ban on Israeli aircraft in its airspace. The flag carrier of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Airlines, remains free to overfly Turkish territory, making Baku a practical transit point for Israeli official travel affected by the closure.

Türkiye imposed the airspace ban on Israeli aircraft amid the suspension of ties between Ankara and Jerusalem. The restriction applies to Israeli-flagged operators and has forced rerouting of flights that previously crossed Turkish airspace, one of the main corridors between Israel and destinations in Asia, the Caucasus and beyond.

Herzog's decision to take a commercial service rather than a state aircraft on the Azerbaijan Airlines route underscores the operational consequences of the ban. What does this change for carriers? For Israel-bound and Israel-originating traffic, it shifts connecting volume toward airlines such as Azerbaijan Airlines, whose hub in Baku sits outside the restriction and connects to Israeli points without entering Turkish airspace.

Azerbaijan and Israel maintain functioning relations, and AZAL (Azerbaijan Airlines' operating brand) serves Tel Aviv, giving the airline a direct role in the corridor the Turkish closure created. A head of state choosing a scheduled AZAL flight also carries a diplomatic signal: it demonstrates that Israeli official travel can proceed without negotiating access through Turkish airspace.

For network planners, the episode illustrates how bilateral political measures now translate directly into routings, block times and connecting options. Airspace closures add distance and fuel burn where they force detours, and they reallocate transfer traffic to carriers positioned along alternative corridors. In this case, the Caspian corridor via Baku absorbed a trip that Turkish airspace would otherwise have served.

The Turkish ban remains in force, and no restoration of overflight rights for Israeli aircraft has been announced. Until that changes, carriers with hubs outside Türkiye — Azerbaijan Airlines among them — retain the routing advantage that Herzog's commercial flight visibly exploited.