FlyDubai planes are parked at Dubai International Airport as several Persian Gulf airlines — including carriers based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Doha in Qatar and others — curtailed commercial flights for safety after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. (Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images)
Limited flights out of the Middle East resumed on Monday, but hundreds of thousands of travelers remain stranded at major aviation hubs after attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel.
Tourists and business travelers are hunkered down in hotels and airports across the region, awaiting word on when airports will fully reopen and schedules will normalize.
“We’re waiting to fly out. Our flights keep getting canceled,” said Kristy Ellmer of Portsmouth, N.H., who traveled to Dubai last week for business meetings and is now unsure when she’ll be able to leave. “We’ve had flights booked every day for the week and Sunday was canceled. Monday was canceled. Tuesday’s already been canceled. And so, kind of hoping that the Wednesday flights stay.”
Emirates, one of the world’s largest airlines, said it would resume operating “a limited number of flights” on Monday evening and would prioritize customers with earlier bookings, but warned that most services remain suspended until further notice.
Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 reported more than 3,400 cancellations in the Middle East on Monday alone, bringing the total since the war began to nearly 10,000. The tracking site noted cancellations across seven major airports (DXB, DOH, AUH, SHJ, KWI, BAH, DWC) exceeded 9,500 flights over several days.
Airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are major transfer points between Europe and the Americas, Africa and Asia. Authorities in all three cities said they were targeted by Iranian strikes aimed at civilian and military sites in U.S.-aligned states in the Persian Gulf.
Dubai International, one of the busiest airports globally, said operations resumed with “a small number of flights” Monday evening, days after social media video showed passengers fleeing down smoke-filled hallways following a suspected drone strike. Abu Dhabi’s airport also resumed “partial operations,” and Etihad Airways flights were among the first to depart. Doha’s main airport said operations “remain temporarily suspended.”
It’s unclear exactly how many international travelers remain stranded, but aviation analytics firm Cirium estimates about 90,000 passengers transit through the region’s major hubs daily on just three airlines — Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.
Airspace and airports across the region were closed over the weekend, according to flight trackers and government agencies. More cancellations are likely while strikes and counter-strikes continue.
Stranded travelers from around the world are scrambling to make alternate plans. Ellmer, a consultant who helps clients navigate change, said keeping perspective has helped: “We’ve lost a few service members through this. There are people who are living in much worse conditions right now through this conflict. We’re staying at a good hotel that’s taking care of us. So I think just keeping that perspective is also helping me be calm.”
