Emirates and Etihad also restart limited flight schedules following the partial re-opening of regional airspace.
Euronews correspondents in Doha observed at least six Airbus and Boeing passenger flights taking off on Sunday morning after Qatar Airways announced the resumption of limited flights through a safe operating corridor.
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These take-offs from Hamad International Airport did not appear on aviation portal Flightradar24, indicating they departed with their transponders off as a safety precaution. However, Flightradar24 showed these flights briefly taxiing for departure, with only one of them showing its destination as Frankfurt.
After more than a week of airspace disruptions due to the conflict between US-Israel and Iran, Qatar Airways confirmed that it had operated repatriation flights on Sunday, which departed from Hamad International Airport to Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, and Zurich.
On Monday, the airline also intends to operate flights arriving to Doha from Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Zurich and Muscat.
These flights are “only for passengers whose final destination is Doha” and “do not constitute a confirmation of resumption of scheduled commercial operations”, the airline said in a statement.
Up to 8,000 passengers are reported to have been stranded in Qatar with the government covering the costs of hotel accommodation and extending their visas.
Emirates and Etihad also restart limited flight schedule
Emirates expects to return to full flight capacity in the “coming days”, following the partial re-opening of regional airspace in the UAE. The Dubai-based carrier has been operating a reduced flight schedule while working to restore full network operations.
On Thursday, it carried approximately 30,000 passengers out of Dubai. “The airline anticipates a return to 100% of its network within the coming days, subject to airspace availability and the fulfilment of all operational requirements,” an Emirates statement said on Friday. “Safety, as ever, remains paramount as is our duty of care.”
Passengers with earlier bookings are being accommodated as “priority” and should only proceed to the airport if they have a confirmed booking.
A drone attack near the main terminals of Dubai International Airport temporarily suspended operations on Saturday morning just after Iran announced that it would no longer target neighbouring countries and apologised for the past attacks. Black smoke was seen rising over the airport after a loud boom, multiple eyewitness accounts said. Airport operations resumed hours later.
Etihad Airways has also restarted a “limited flight schedule” operating from its hub at Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi. The airline has listed more than 70 destinations that it planned to fly to between 6 and 19 March. "Guests with previous bookings will be accommodated on these flights as soon as possible," Etihad said.
Riyadh flights 'diverting elsewhere'
On Sunday morning, Flightradar24 posted on X that flights to Riyadh King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia have been “diverting elsewhere or returning to origin over the past few hours”.
In a travel alert, King Khalid International urged passengers to check directly with airlines for latest flight updates before heading to the airport.
As regional airspace disruptions affected flight routes across the Gulf, Riyadh’s airport has emerged as a transit point for passengers seeking to leave the region. With some flight corridors temporarily restricted or operating at reduced capacity, travellers from across the Gulf have rerouted via the Saudi capital, where airlines have continued operating long-haul services.
Airlines issue updates to Middle East schedules
Virgin Atlantic has been operating repatriation flights from Dubai and Riyadh and expects to have “returned all customers who are away from home by early next week”. It announced that following the departure of VS401 on Monday 9 March, the airline’s flights to and from Dubai will be suspended until 28 March. Virgin Atlantic is also pausing Riyadh operations “for an initial period of two weeks” starting Sunday 8 March.
British Airways has scheduled further flights from Oman's capital city, Muscat, to London Heathrow departing at 2:30 am local time on 9, 10, 11 and 12 March. The airline said these flights are for “BA customers who are in Oman or the UAE with an existing booking”.
Finnair is also preparing to operate special flights from Muscat to Helsinki to transport around 1,200 customers currently in Dubai. The first flight is scheduled for Tuesday 10 March, with more flights planned for later in the week.
Air Arabia has started operating a limited number of flights to and from the UAE, subject to operational and regulatory approvals. On 6-7 March, limited flights will be operating to destinations including Austria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Italy, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
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 Sunday 8 March.
Gulf Air flight operations remain temporarily suspended. The airline will resume services once the Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs confirms the safe reopening of the affected airspace.
Saudia has 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 6 March.
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 is “monitoring the evolving situation in the region in real-time”, but due to the closure of certain airspaces it has been forced to extend the suspension of its flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh until 10 March inclusive and to and from Tel Aviv and Beirut until 11 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, while flights to and from Dubai, Dammam and Riyadh are suspended until 8 March.
Lufthansa Group airlines – which includes Lufthansa, SWISS International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, and Eurowings – has suspended flights to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi until and including 10 March; to and from Dammam until 10 March; to Amman and Erbil until 15 March; to and from Tel Aviv until 22 March; to and from Beirut until 28 March; and to and from Tehran until 30 April. Flights to and from Larnaca in Cyprus will resume as of 7 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.
Air China, China Southern and a few other Chinese carriers are resuming direct flights to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE. Air China resumed a flight from Beijing to Riyadh on Thursday, state media reported. China is also helping citizens evacuate from the region, saying it received a plane carrying 300 passengers from Dubai on Wednesday. “We once again remind that the situation in the Middle East remains complex and severe, with considerable uncertainty,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said about the evacuations and flights.
