A limited number of flights have been able to leave the United Arab Emirates for the first time since the joint Israeli and United States war on Iran.
More than 4,00 flights have been cancelled in the region after the strike, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The disruption "will only increase the longer the crisis continues", and it "will have enormous repercussions for the industry," director of communications Ian Petchenik said.
Airlines are now preparing to restart service to the region after the mass cancellations, but local authorities only gave the green light to resume a “limited number” of flights.
The first was Emirates flight EK500, which departed at 9:12 pm local time bound for Mumbai, India, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking site. The flight was operated on an Airbus A380, the world’s biggest passenger plane.
Another Flydubai flight to Warsaw, Poland, departed after 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Flightradar24 said. An Air Baltic plane left Dubai, but the Latvia-based carrier said it was solely a repositioning flight, not carrying passengers.
The strikes shut down a large part of the airspace in the Middle East.
Even those who weren’t flying to and from the area were impacted since aircraft couldn’t transit through those zones.
Dubai is one of the busiest air travel hubs in the world.
In a post to X, Emirates said it would be operating a limited number of flights.
“We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority, and those who have been rebooked to travel on these limited flights will be contacted directly by Emirates,” the airline said.
“Please do not go to the airport unless you have been notified.”
