The United Arab Emirates is significantly increasing its repatriation flight operations as it reopens its airspace, focusing on repatriating tens of thousands of tourists and residents, as Dubai revitalises its status as the prime transit hub for aviation.
Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s Minister for Economy and Tourism, reported that emergency corridors are facilitating as many as 48 flights per hour, efficiently transporting nearly 17,500 passengers across 60 flights to this point, with plans to expand capacity as security evaluations progress.
“We have already initiated flights to bring home travellers caught in this scenario through our airports, implementing this process in stages,” Al Marri stated during a media briefing.
Operation in Motion
Authorities are poised to boost operations to over 80 scheduled flights each day in the next phase, aiming to assist more than 27,000 passengers. “We are executing our regional emergency plans, crafted for crises like this,” Al Marri added, noting the UAE’s collaborative efforts with neighbouring nations to establish special air routes for safe emergency management.
The shutdown of airspace over the UAE and much of the surrounding region commenced on Saturday, following a series of retaliatory strikes by Iran across the GCC triggered by coordinated U.S. and Israeli attacks that resulted in the death of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since the onset of the conflict, there have been over 32,000 flights scheduled to both arrive and depart from the Middle East, with approximately 19,000 of those flights being canceled.
Emirates Airlines confirmed today that commercial flights to and from DXB would remain suspended until 23:59 UAE time on Wednesday. However, the state-sanctioned airline has been conducting a limited number of passenger repatriation and cargo flights since Monday evening with some reaching final locations whilst others were rerouted to Muscat.
Emirates’ sister airline, Flydubai, cautiously resumed limited flight operations on Tuesday from Terminals 2 and 3 at DXB. “We are diligently working to elevate our operations once the temporary restrictions are lifted,” the airline stated.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has been running select repatriation and cargo flights, declaring that regular flight schedules will remain halted until 2pm on Thursday.
Nearly 24% of scheduled flights in the UAE took off on Tuesday.
Qatari Aviation
Qatar Airways announced a continuation of commercial flight suspensions for an additional day, with further updates expected on Wednesday at 9 AM local time. On that same day, only five flights departed from Hamad International Airport.
Gulf Air also confirmed that their flights would remain grounded, with the next update anticipated on Wednesday at 11 AM local time. Bahrain International Airport reported no flight activity, whereas Kuwait International Airport experienced close to 36% of its flights taking off.
KSA Aviation
Saudia has officially announced that flights in and out of Amman, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Moscow, and Peshawar stand canceled until 23:59 GMT on Wednesday.
Airports across Saudi Arabia remain busy, with nearly 80% of scheduled flights taking off. Oman Air has canceled all flights to and from Amman, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Kuwait, Copenhagen, Baghdad, and Khasab until Friday, with just about 20 flights departing the sultanate on Tuesday.
UK Repatriation of Nationals
Yvette Cooper, the UK Foreign Minister, indicated that Britain is coordinating with airlines to increase repatriation capacity from Muscat, Oman, prioritising vulnerable British nationals amidst the ongoing crisis. The flights are targeting
In the interim, a government charter flight is expected to operate from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable British nationals: most of whom are British tourists.
UAE repatriation flights are taking off first, with any resumption in the UAE’s commercial services on hold, until backlogs and the airspace is fully safe.
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