Flights of the Azerbaijani cargo airline Silk Way Airlines to Israel’s Ovda air base are not new, but what is more noteworthy is the coincidence of the intensity of these flights and Baku’s military aggressive actions.

This was recorded in March 2023 by the Israeli daily Haaretz, noting that Ovda is the only Israeli airfield through which explosives are imported to or exported from that country by air. And Azerbaijan is one of the main buyers of Israeli ammunition, and Israel, especially after 2016, is considered a key military supplier of Azerbaijan.

In our previous article, we discussed the flights of Silk Way Airlines cargo from Israel to Azerbaijan in 2016-2024, the number of which regularly increased when the Aliyev regime unleashed another military aggression against Artsakh and/or Armenia.

• Azerbaijan Increases Cargo Flights to Israel’s Ovda Air Base

Of note is that although 2024 was a passive year in terms of Armenian-Azerbaijani armed clashes, nevertheless, for the first time since 2020, the number of annual flights of Azerbaijani planes from Ovda exceeded twenty last year. If, in war-torn 2020, Silk Way Airlines planes flew from Ovda to Azerbaijan twenty-six times, they did so twenty-three times in 2024.

Let us note that especially at the end of last year, Aliyev and his subordinates once again stood out with belligerent anti-Armenian statements and threats. Against this background, the sharp increase in cargo flights from the Ovda airbase to Azerbaijan was not accidental. In December 2024 alone, Hetq recorded six such flights, while the maximum monthly figure in the eleven months preceding that was four (in July).

Continuing to track Silk Way Airlines cargo flights from Ovda to Azerbaijan, Hetq counted six such flights in January-March of this year using the flightradar24.com website. Moreover, it is not necessary that the planes departing from Ovda land in Baku itself (they sometimes land in Ganja), but in the first quarter of 2025 they landed only in Baku.

It should be noted that we have only highlighted flights departing from Ovda, although Silk Way Airlines also operates round flights to Tel Aviv and Eilat.

According to Haaretz, the transportation of explosives through Israel’s main Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is prohibited, as it is in a densely populated area. Instead, Ovda is in the southern desert of the country, about 45 km north of the city of Eilat. Ovda, built in 1980, previously served not only military aviation, but also received civilian flights, serving the city of Eilat and surrounding communities. However, since 2019, when the new Eilat airport was opened (it is the second in passenger traffic after Ben Gurion), Ovda has remained exclusively as a military airfield.

In the first quarter of this year, Silk Way Airlines cargo planes made the following number of flights on the Baku-Ovda-Baku route:

January – three, February – two, March - one

It should be noted that when departing from Ovda to Azerbaijan, Silk Way Airlines planes cross the airspace of Cyprus, Turkey, and Georgia (see below).

Feb. 26, 2025 - 4K-AZ102 Ovda-Baku flight (flight number: ZP4672)

Of note is that the Azerbaijani airline operates Il-76TD cargo aircraft, but all six of the above flights were conducted by aircraft with the registration 4K-AZ102.

Infographic by Aren Nazaryan

Top photo: 4K-AZ102 arrives in Tel Aviv, 05.11.2024; source: jetphotos.com