The Latest on Middle East Flight Disruptions and Airspace Closures—Here's What Travelers Need to Know


SalamAir: Oman’s SalamAir is placing on flights between Fujairah International Airport and Muscat, with connecting journey’s to Lucknow, Calicut, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Karachi, and Cairo. Tickets needs to be bought straight from the airline’s web site or an authorised journey company.

Kuwait Airways: Commercial arrivals and departures at Kuwait International Airport (KWI) are at the moment on maintain. Kuwaiti residents with current bookings with the airline are being flown to Jeddah as a part of an emergency repatriation plan. From Saudi Arabia, passengers are required to full the ultimate leg of their journey to Kuwait by land.

Air Canada: Air Canada has cancelled all flights to Dubai by means of March 28 and suspended service to Tel Aviv by means of May 2. Passengers with flights booked by means of March 15 to Abu Dhabi (AUH), Amman (AMM), Beirut (BEY), Dammam (DMM), and Erbil (EBL) can change their journey to one other date between now and March 31, 2026.

Which nations have closed their airspace?

The United Arab Emirates has partially reopened its airspace, with a restricted variety of repatriation flights at the moment working from the nation’s predominant airports. Dubai Airports, the authority that oversees each Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC), are working a small variety of flights. Passengers are urged to not go to the airport except they’ve been straight contacted by their airline about rebooking.

Qatar has partially reopened its airspace to enable a restricted variety of repatriation flights to happen; nonetheless, scheduled industrial flights stay quickly suspended.

Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Bahrain have all closed their airspace. Kuwait has additionally closed its airspace, and has reported a drone assault on its airport. Kuwait’s Public Authority for Civil Aviation stated the assault brought on “minor injuries to several employees and limited material damage to Terminal 1.”

According to the US Department of State, Saudi Arabia‘s airspace is open with commercial flights currently operating out of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran, despite significant flight cancellations and operational delays.  “Americans should strongly consider departing on one of these flights if they believe it is safe to do so,” the company stated in a March 8 alert.

Which locations are impacted?

The affect has widened to embrace main regional hubs and key transit corridors:

  • Tel Aviv: Israeli airspace stays closely restricted, with many worldwide carriers persevering with to droop providers or pause routes.
  • Dubai and Abu Dhabi: UAE airspace has partially reopened, with a restricted variety of flights working from Dubai International (DXB), Dubai World Central (DWC) and Zayed International Airport (AUH). Services stay selective and passengers are being contacted straight by airways if booked on working flights.
  • Iran and Iraq: Airspace stays closed or largely prevented by worldwide airways, with most carriers persevering with to reroute round each nations.
  • Kuwait: Airspace stays closed and industrial operations at Kuwait International Airport are suspended following a drone strike that broken Terminal 1.
  • Doha: Qatari airspace stays closed; nonetheless, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority has authorized restricted working corridors for repatriation flights.
  • Bahrain: Bahraini airspace stays closed as mandated by the Bahrain Civil Aviation Authority.

How will this affect my flight?

Travelers ought to count on a variety of sensible disruptions, together with:



Sources

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