04/03/2026 – 10:00 GMT+1
Emirates, Etihad Airways and flydubai are continuing to operate a limited schedule, while Qatar Airways has extended its flight suspension until 6 March.
Virgin Atlantic became the latest airline to resume operations out of the UAE with its first flight to London Heathrow since Middle East airspace closures began due to the conflict between the US-Israel and Iran.
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The British airline’s scheduled 11:20 am flight took off from Dubai International Airport (DXB) at 11:50 am local time (8:50 am CET) on Wednesday. Virgin also resumed flights from Riyadh, with its first departure from King Khalid International Airport at 4:22 am local time (2:22 am CET).
Emirates, which also operates out of DXB, has said that its scheduled flights remain suspended until 11:59 pm local time (9:59 pm CET) on 4 March, while Etihad, which operates out of Abu Dhabi, has extended its suspension until 2 pm local time (12 pm CET) on 5 March.
Both airlines are operating a limited number of repatriation flights, with the priority being stranded passengers. Etihad and Emirates will be contacting passengers directly about these flights, and those who have not been notified should not travel to the airport.
Budget carrier flydubai has also resumed a limited number of flights.
The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on Tuesday evening that 60 flights transporting 17,498 passengers have departed the country so far. The authority aims to increase the number of scheduled flights up to 80 per day, with a capacity of 27,000 passengers.
British Airways, which does not usually operate out of Oman, has organised a flight between Muscat and London that is set to depart at 2:30 am local time on 5 March. Seats are being assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, and passengers who were booked on flights from Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Amman, and Tel Aviv can call the airline to book their seat.
While the resumption of some flights has brought relief to stranded travellers, the vast majority remain cancelled. Posting on X on Tuesday, Flightradar24 said cancellations across seven major Middle East airports – Dubai International, Hamad International Airport in Doha, Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah International Airport, Kuwait International Airport, Bahrain International Airport, and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International – have now exceeded 12,300 flights from 28 February until 3 March.
Around 20,200 passengers have been affected by the cancelling or rescheduling of flights in the UAE, while a further 8,000 transit passengers are currently stuck in Doha.
With air travel severely limited throughout the Middle East, the conflict that started on Saturday stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers in multiple countries. Tourists, business travellers and religious pilgrims found themselves stuck unexpectedly in hotels, airports and on cruise ships.
Dubai International, Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, and Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, are important hubs for travel between Europe, Africa and Asia. The airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were both directly hit by Iranian strikes over the weekend. Along with people planning to head to or from the region, travellers who were passing through on multi-leg flights also found themselves stuck.
All aircraft movements at Hamad International Airport remain suspended due to the temporary closure of the Qatari airspace. The country’s flag carrier, Qatar Airways, will resume operations once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the safe reopening of Qatari airspace. The airline said a further update will be provided on Friday 6 March by 9 am local time (7 am CET).
Airspace closures also remain in place in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria and Israel.
Which airlines are affected?
Air Arabia flights to and from the UAE are temporarily suspended until 3 pm local time on 4 March. Flights to Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq are suspended until 5 March. The airline said that a “limited number of flights may operate in coordination with the relevant authorities”, subject to operational and safety approvals. “Passengers scheduled on operating flights will be notified directly.”
Due to ongoing regional airspace closures, Oman Air said that flights to and from Amman, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Kuwait, Copenhagen, Baghdad, and Khasab had been cancelled until Friday 6 March.
Gulf Air flights remain temporarily suspended as closure of Bahrain airspace continues. The airline will give its next update at 11 am local time on 5 March.
Saudia has also cancelled flights to and from Amman, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Moscow and Peshawar until 11:59 pm local time (9:59 pm CET) on 4 March.
On Tuesday, Indian airlines said they were resuming limited commercial services to the Middle East in a bid to collect thousands of passengers stranded by war. Millions of South Asian citizens live and work across the Middle East.
IndiGo said it would operate four return flights to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to “progressively normalise” operations between the countries.
Air India has not extended its suspension of flights to and from the region, and some flights have departed from DXB. Air India Express said it would resume flights to and from the Omani capital Muscat from Tuesday. But services to and from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE remain suspended, the airlines said in a statement. Budget carrier Akasa Air said it would operate select flights to Jeddah.
Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has suspended all flights to and from Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman and Saudi Arabia up to and including 7 March.
Turkish Airlines has cancelled flights to and from Bahrain, Dammam and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria and the UAE.
Air France has cancelled its scheduled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh until 5 March.
Dutch airline KLM is currently not flying through the airspace of Iran, Iraq, and Israel, nor over several countries in the Gulf region. Flights to, from, or via destinations in the region are cancelled or adjusted. KLM’s Tel Aviv flights are suspended for the remainder of its winter season operations; flights to and from Dubai, Dammam and Riyadh are suspended until 5 March.
British Airways is not flying to Tel Aviv and Bahrain until 4 March, while a number of flights to the Middle East have also been cancelled. The airline said if passengers are due to fly between London Heathrow and Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai or Tel Aviv up to and including 15 March, they can change their flight free of charge to travel on or before 29 March. Customers travelling up to and including 8 March may also request a full refund.
Lufthansa Group airlines – which includes Lufthansa, SWISS International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, and Eurowings – has suspended flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil, Dammam, and Tehran until 8 March. In addition, Lufthansa Group airlines also suspend flights to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi until 6 March.
Finnair has suspended daily flights to Dubai and Doha until 29 March, while Norwegian is suspending its flights to and from Dubai up until and including 10 March.
Delta Air Lines has cancelled flights from New York to Tel Aviv until 8 March, while American Airlines’s Doha-Philadelphia flights are “temporarily suspended”.
Air Canada has said that all flights to and from Dubai and Tel Aviv are currently suspended and restarting on 23 March.
Garuda Indonesia, Indonesia’s flag carrier, temporarily suspended flights to and from Doha “until further notice”, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
