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Hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded or diverted amid air space closures in Middle East
Chaos as key transit hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha close, and more than 1,000 flights by major Middle Eastern airlines cancelled
America and Israel’s attack on Iran disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond as countries around the region closed their airspace and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations.
Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.
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That led to the closure of key hub airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, and the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights by major Middle Eastern airlines. The three major airlines that operate at those airports – Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad – typically have about 90,000 passengers per day passing through those hubs and even more travellers headed to destinations in the Middle East, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Dubai international airport is the world’s busiest airport for international flights.
Major international airports in the region also became targets of Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Dubai’s international airport and its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel sustained damage and four people were injured. Abu Dhabi Airports said in a post on X that an incident at Zayed international airport in the UAE’s capital resulted in one fatality and seven injuries. It later deleted the post.
