International airlines cautiously resumed limited flights from United Arab Emirates on Monday and Tuesday, offering slight relief to hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded by Middle East airspace closures following conflict between US-Israel and Iran.

Long-haul carriers Etihad Airways and Emirates, based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively, alongside budget carrier Flydubai, operated select flights after air traffic suspension on Saturday. Dubai government instructed passengers to head to airports only if contacted directly during ‘limited resumption of operations’.

More than 80 percent of flights scheduled to and from Dubai and over half of flights to and from Abu Dhabi remained cancelled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Cancellations across seven major Middle East airports have now exceeded 12 thousand 300 flights from February 28 until March 3, Flightradar24 confirmed Tuesday.

At least 15 Etihad flights departed Abu Dhabi airport on Monday for evacuation, heading to destinations including Islamabad, Paris, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Cairo and London Heathrow. Regular commercial flights remained cancelled. Etihad confirmed scheduled commercial flights suspended until 2 pm local time on Wednesday 4th March.

Emirates began operating limited flights Monday evening, prioritising customers with earlier bookings. Emirates flight UAE500 to Mumbai took off from Dubai at 6:15 pm CET, tracked by more than 1 lakh 38 thousand people on Flightradar24. This marked Emirates’ first departure from Dubai since 12:19 pm local time on February 28.

On Tuesday morning, five Emirates A380 aircraft departed Dubai bound for Jeddah, Manchester, Paris, London and Frankfurt. Flydubai operated four departing flights and five arriving planes on Monday.

Conflict that started Saturday stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers across multiple countries. Tourists, business travellers and religious pilgrims found themselves stuck in hotels, airports and cruise ships.

Dubai International Airport, Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport and Hamad International Airport in Doha serve as crucial hubs for travel between Europe, Africa and Asia. All three airports were directly hit by Iranian strikes over weekend.

All aircraft movements at Hamad International Airport remain suspended due to temporary closure of Qatari airspace. Qatar Airways will resume operations once Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces safe reopening. Airline said further update will be provided Wednesday by 9 am local time.

Pakistan Airports Authority clarified on social media that airspace remains ‘fully open and safe for all civil flights’ with no restrictions on commercial operations.

Indian airlines resumed limited commercial services Tuesday to collect thousands of stranded passengers. IndiGo will operate four return flights to Jeddah while Air India Express resumed flights to Muscat. Services to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE remain suspended.

Turkish Airlines cancelled flights to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria and UAE. Air France cancelled flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh until March 5.

British Airways suspended Tel Aviv and Bahrain flights until March 4. Lufthansa Group airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil, Dammam, Tehran until 8th March and Dubai until March 4.

Air Canada suspended all flights to Dubai and Tel Aviv, restarting March 23. Garuda Indonesia temporarily suspended Doha flights ‘until further notice’.

Source: Euronews