Emirates to resume ‘limited’ number of flights

• Some services restart on Monday night
• Flydubai and Etihad also flying again
• Damage to airports including DXB

Emirates Airline has announced plans to restart limited flights on Monday night.

The Dubai-based, state-backed carrier had said on Monday morning that it would not resume operations until 3pm on Tuesday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded across the emirate.

But by the afternoon it said it was accommodating customers with earlier bookings “as a priority” and affected customers would be contacted directly by the carrier.

“Please do not go to the airport unless you have been notified,” the airline said in a statement.

Flydubai has also announced it will begin flying again on Monday evening.

Dubai Airports confirmed that a “limited number” of flights would be operating from both Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central.

Abu Dhabi flag carrier Etihad Airways has also resumed limited operations.

“Some repositioning, cargo and repatriation flights may operate in coordination with UAE authorities and subject to strict operational and safety approvals,” the airline said in a statement.

Etihad added that scheduled commercial flights to and from Abu Dhabi remained cancelled.

The disruption follows coordinated strikes by the US and Israel on Iran on Saturday, which killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. These were met with retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Raghed Waked/Reuters

Qatar Airways flights remain suspended. The flag carrier is due to provide an update at 9am Doha time on Tuesday.

“Qatar Airways will resume operations once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the safe reopening of Qatari airspace,” the company said in a statement.

Airspace over Iran, Israel, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria and the UAE was closed on Monday morning.

Almost 3,800 flights had been scheduled to land at airports across the region on Monday, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. More than 40 percent – close to 1,600 – were cancelled, it said.

DXB and Zayed International in Abu Dhabi were both struck on the weekend, with one person killed at Zayed airport.

Bahrain International Airport and Kuwait International Airport also suffered direct or indirect hits from drones or the debris of intercepted missiles.

Saudi Arabia’s Saudia has cancelled flights to and from several regional cities until late Monday, while Oman Air has suspended multiple Gulf routes.

European airlines are also retreating. Wizz Air has suspended flights to and from Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman until next Saturday.

Virgin Atlantic halted Heathrow-Riyadh services on Sunday after cancelling Dubai flights over the weekend.

The German airline Lufthansa has suspended flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil, Dammam and Tehran until and including March 8, it said on Sunday.

It also said airspace over Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dammam and Iran would be closed up to March 8.

Flights to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi would be suspended until and including March 4, Lufthansa added.

British Airways has scrapped Tel Aviv and Bahrain services until Wednesday and warned that flights between Heathrow and Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai or Tel Aviv could face disruption for days, according to the BBC.