Tuesday 03 March update: Dubai International Airport has resumed “a small number of flights”. Emirates is operating a limited number of passenger repatriation flights, while all other services to and from Dubai remain suspended until 23:59 local time on 4 March. Etihad Airways flights to and from Abu Dhabi remain suspended until 14:00 local time on 5 March. Qatar Airways flight operations also remain temporarily suspended.
Thousands of travellers remain stranded at airports across the Gulf region after joint US and Israel military strikes on Iran over the weekend led to mass airline cancellations for the Middle East region.
Tensions came to a head on Saturday 28 February when US-Israeli missiles were first launched in Iran, which prompted Iranian strikes targeting major airports in the region.
This included Dubai International Airport – the world’s biggest international hub and a central artery for air traffic between Europe and Asia – where a concourse “sustained minor damage” following an attack over the weekend, the airport confirmed. Flight operations at the hub remain suspended until further notice while air space over Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE remains closed, according to a Bloomberg report.
Regional carriers Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have temporarily suspended all flights until Tuesday 3 March, while operations across several major European airlines have also been affected.
Flight tracking website FlightAware reported 5,987 global flight cancellations over the weekend. At the time of publication on Monday 2 March, an additional 2,156 flights had been cancelled, along with 9,622 delays.
Lufthansa Group airlines – which includes SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and ITA Airways – will suspend flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil, Dammam and Tehran until 8 March. Flights to from Dubai are suspended until 4 March and airspace over the United Arab Emirates will not be used during that time.
The group also advised that its carriers will avoid the airspace over Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dammam and Iran until 8 March.
Air France has cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh until 3 March. Meanwhile, sister airline KLM said it is currently not flying through the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Israel, “nor over several countries in the Gulf region”. Flights to and from Dubai, Riyadh and Dammam have been suspended until 5 March, while flights to Tel Aviv will be suspended for the remainder of its winter season operations.
IAG-owned British Airways said on Sunday (1 March) that it is “closely monitoring the situation” and has cancelled “a number of flights” to the Middle East. BA customers flying between London and Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai or Tel Aviv through to 15 March can change their flight date free of charge to travel on or before 29 March, the carrier said. Customers booked for travel up to and including 8 March can also request a full refund.
Virgin Atlantic also suspended services between London and Riyadh and Dubai over the weekend, including flights scheduled for 2 March.
In a televised address on Sunday, UK prime minister Keir Starmer said the “the United Kingdom was not involved in the strikes on Iran” but has since been called upon to help defend its allies in the Middle East. “We have British jets in the air as part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes,” Starmer said, adding that the UK government has granted the US military access to British bases in the region for “defensive purposes”. Hours after this address, a UK Royal Airforce Base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected Iranian drone attack.
The UK foreign office has advised against all but essential travel to the UAE, Qatar and parts of Lebanon. It has also warned against all travel to several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and parts of Turkey.
Governments in France, Germany, and Italy have similarly revised their travel advisories concerning the Middle East. Germany has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to the entire region, while Italy’s foreign affairs ministry on Friday (27 February) warned against all travel to Iran and Iraq and all non-essential travel to Lebanon. It also advised Italian nationals in Israel to “exercise maximum caution and remain vigilant”.