Governments and airlines scrambled on Tuesday to repatriate tens of thousands of travellers stranded in the Middle East following the outbreak of a regional conflict sparked by Israel–US strikes on Iran.
Countries across the region closed their airspace as Iran retaliated against US allies, with Qatar reporting it had intercepted an attack on its airport, one of the region’s major hubs.
At least 12,903 flights were cancelled between Saturday and Monday – around 40 per cent of planned departures, according to aviation data firm Cirium, which estimated that over one million passengers had been affected so far.
Slow resumption
On Sunday, nearly all flights out of the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai Airport, the world’s second-largest by passenger numbers, were cancelled.
The cancellation rate fell to 93.5 per cent on Monday after Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports resumed limited operations.
Some Emirates flights departed on Tuesday morning, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24, flying south out of the Gulf region. Low-cost carrier flydubai and Russia’s Aeroflot were also operating.
Flights continued to arrive and depart in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, though no civilian flights were passing through airspace over Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Libya, or Qatar.
Israel said its airspace would gradually reopen from Wednesday night, initially only for flights repatriating nationals.
Evacuations
European countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania moved quickly to organise airlifts of their citizens.
Hundreds of passengers landed in Prague on two planes on Tuesday morning; around 100 Slovaks returned, and more than 300 Romanians arrived via Egypt.
Italians were scheduled to return to Rome and Milan on three flights.
Russia said it had repatriated nationals who had fled from Iran to Azerbaijan, as well as a few dozen from Egypt.
The United States said it was assisting with charter flights from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, adding that more than 9,000 people had already been brought home since Saturday.
France is among the most affected Western countries, with an estimated 400,000 nationals in the region. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that two flights were en route to Paris with the first groups to be repatriated. Other European countries were following suit.
Germany said a charter flight would leave Oman on Wednesday with some of the estimated 30,000 Germans stranded in the region, and travel company TUI began flying holidaymakers home from two of its cruise ships in the Gulf via Dubai.
Britain announced a charter flight to bring nationals home from Oman in the coming days, with Ireland and Spain making similar arrangements.
Several airlines also joined the effort. Indian carriers IndiGo, Air India Express, and Akasa Air said they would operate evacuation flights, while British Airways scheduled a flight from Oman on Thursday.
Suspended operations
Airlines including Air France, British Airways, LOT, Norwegian, and SAS have suspended flights to the Middle East for the coming days. Finnair has halted flights to Doha and Dubai until nearly the end of the month.
