London, Mar 02: Global air travel chaos intensified on Monday as the US and Israel continued to bombard Iran, which struck back at targets across the Middle East, leaving airports closed and stranding travellers including those in faraway areas who were scheduled to transit through the region.
Governments were scrambling to help their citizens get home after the conflict erupted on Saturday, throwing travel plans into turmoil.
Tourists, business travellers and religious pilgrims found themselves stuck unexpectedly in hotels, airports and on cruise ships, with no word on when many airports would reopen or when flights to and through the Middle East would resume.
Governments told stranded citizens to shelter in place.
Airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, which are important hubs for travel between Europe, Africa and the West to Asia, remained closed after they were all directly hit by Iranian strikes.
Emirates, based in Dubai International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, said it will resume operating a “limited number of flights” on Monday evening, without providing more details. It previously said it was suspend flights until 3 pm local time Tuesday.
“We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority,” it said and advised people not to go to the airport unless they were notified.
Doha-based Qatar Airways said Monday its flights remain suspended, with its next update planned for Tuesday morning.
Flight tracking site FlightRadar said on X that 15 aircraft from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways have taken off “within a three-hour window, likely helping to clear transit passengers who have been stuck there since the start of the conflict”.
Etihad had also previously halted flights Tuesday afternoon and suspended operations at its hub, Zayed International Airport.
The flight turmoil stretched even farther, with Jordan announcing a partial closure of its airspace.
More than 58,000 Indonesians were stranded in Saudi Arabia, where they were visiting Islam’s holy sites of Mecca and Medina on an Umrah pilgrimage during Ramadan.
“It has become an urgent humanitarian and logistical issue,” said Ichsan Marsha, spokesperson for Indonesia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, which is coordinating with Saudi authorities, airlines and Indonesian travel operators to arrange alternative routes or rescheduled flights.
About 30,000 German tourists are currently stranded on cruise ships, in hotels or at closed airports in the Middle East and cannot get back home because of the conflict.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said late Sunday a military evacuation wasn’t possible because of airspace closures and that the government was looking into other options to help bring citizens home.
He said everyone should follow advice from German travel agencies and local authorities.
The German Travel Association called on tourists to “remain at their booked hotels as a matter of urgency” and not “make their own way to the airport or to a neighbouring country”.
Other governments made similar recommendations.
The Czech Republic is sending two planes to Egypt and Jordan to bring home Czech nationals, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said. One will pick up 79 Czechs in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh who want to return from Israel. They are travelling from Israel to Egypt by bus.
The other plane will evacuate Czechs from Amman, Jordan. Babis said there are some 6,700 Czechs in the region.
Four more planes are heading to Muscat and Salalah in Oman to fly home Czech tourists.
Britain is preparing for all options, including possible evacuation of Britons in the Middle East, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
“We are setting up the support systems,” Cooper told Sky News, when asked if Britain was preparing for an evacuation. “We’re working on every possible option.”
More than 102,00 Britons in the region have registered their presence with the UK government since the conflict erupted on the weekend.
In Asia, thousands of travellers were stranded on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali because international flights were cancelled.
Bali’s international airport said at least 15 flights, including eight departures and seven arrivals, on routes to Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi were cancelled as of Monday afternoon. Airline data showed 3,197 departing passengers were affected by the disruptions, airport spokesperson Gede Eka Sandi Asmadi said.
Air France cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh, while carriers from Air India to KLM suspended flights and issued advisories.
US airlines issued travel advisories and upended global transportation roiled the travel sector in financial markets early Monday, including the shares of airlines that fly globally.
United, Delta and American all slid 5% to 6% and global hotel chains tumbled. Cruise lines like Carnival fell even harder.
Iran’s attacks on its Arab neighbours on the other side of the Persian Gulf are dealing a serious, if temporary, blow to their status as key nodes on the world’s travel map.
The Gulf’s shimmering and globalised cities depend on a steady influx of flights carrying foreigners – both tourists and resident workers – and cargo to keep their economies humming.
That’s fuelled the growth of Gulf airline brands including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways.
Those long-haul airlines and a handful of smaller carriers typically pack the skies over the Gulf and have turned their hubs into some of the busiest international airports in the world.
Now their flights are grounded along with those of other airlines whose planes were in the region when airspace was shut. Gulf airliners are scattered in airports the world over without an easy way to get home.
Dubai International Airport handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year, ensuring its status as the world’s busiest airport when measured by international travel. It’s second only to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport overall.
One of Dubai International’s concourses sustained what authorities called “minor damage” during an Iranian attack Sunday that left four people there injured.
Authorities in the UAE are paying all “hosting and accommodation costs” for affected passengers, the General Civil Aviation Authority announced in a statement carried by official Emirati news agency WAM.
It said that as of Sunday the country had handled around 20,200 passengers affected by rescheduled flights.
