First flight back from Dubai to Perth empty despite more than 100,000 Aussies stranded

The first flight from Dubai to Perth since Middle East airspace was closed due to Iranian retaliatory attacks is mostly empty, despite more than 100,000 Australians being stranded in the Middle East.

Flight EK420 is due to land at Perth Airport just after 5.30pm, one of four Emirates planes to land in Australia on Friday after the United Arab Emirates claimed it had succeeded in negotiating a civil air corridor with Iran.

This allows approximately 48 flights per hour to depart from Dubai, a major global transport hub.

Despite many West Australians being stranded in Dubai, the flight to Perth on Friday is almost empty, according to passengers on board.

This comes as Australians returning to Sydney and Melbourne are reporting similar figures on return flights from the conflict zone.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the reports were “disappointing” and confirmed the Government would begin engaging “even more” with airlines to take advantage of repatriation flights.

“I’m disappointed about that. We want every seat to be filled. So we’re trying to work even more closely with the airlines to coordinate that,” he said.

Senator Wong said Australia was doing all it could to bring back more Australians; More than 115,000 are thought to be in the region, with about 11,000 passing through the region on international flights.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Question Time on Thursday that the government had deployed Australian Defense Force assets to the area “as part of contingency plans earlier this week” and that two military aircraft had been sent as part of Operation Beech to support possible evacuation.

But Senator Wong argued the best way for Australians to return home was through commercial flights.