Hundreds Of Thousands Of Travelers Stranded By Flight Disruptions After Attack On Iran

LONDON (AP) — America and Israel attack on Iran Flights to the Middle East and beyond were disrupted on Saturday as countries in the region closed their airspace and suspended operations at three of the major airports connecting Europe, Africa and the West to Asia.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers were either stranded or directed to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 said there was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates after the government announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.

This led to the closure of major hub airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha and the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights by major airlines in the Middle East. The three major airlines operating at these airports (Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad) typically have around 90,000 passengers a day passing through these hubs, with even more passengers heading to destinations in the Middle East, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Dubai International Airport is the world’s The busiest airport for international flights.

“There’s no way to cover this up for passengers,” said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and president of the Atmosphere Research Group. “You should prepare for delays or cancellations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end.”

Airlines crossing the Middle East will have to reroute their flights around the conflict, with many flights heading south via Saudi Arabia. This will add hours to flights and consume additional fuel, increasing the costs airlines will have to cover. Therefore, if the conflict continues, ticket prices may begin to rise rapidly.

The added flights will also put pressure on air traffic controllers in Saudi Arabia, who will have to slow traffic to ensure they can manage it safely. And countries that close their airspace will lose out on the airfares airlines pay for flyovers.

But Mike McCormick, who oversaw air traffic control for the Federal Aviation Administration before retiring and is now a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said that if American and Israeli officials share with the airlines that fly military flights how capable Iran is of firing missiles, those countries could reopen some of their airspace in the next few days.

“These countries will then be able to pass and say, okay, we can reopen this part of our space, but we’re going to keep this part of our airspace closed,” McCormick said. “So I think we will see over the next 24 to 36 hours how the use of airspace evolves as kinetic activity becomes better defined and Iran’s ability to actually launch missiles and create additional risk from strikes decreases.”

However, it is unclear how long the disruption in flight operations will last. For comparison, Israeli and US attack on Iran in June 2025 it took 12 days.

The situation was changing rapidly and airlines urged passengers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport.

Some airlines have issued exemptions to affected passengers that will allow them to rebook their flight plans without paying extra fees or higher fees.

When Jonathan Escott and his fiancée arrived at the airport in Newcastle, England, on Saturday, they learned that their direct flight to Dubai on Emirates airline had been canceled and everyone on the flight was stranded there.

Escott left the airport to go back to where he was staying with his family about an hour away, but he has no idea when he’ll be able to travel.

“Nobody knows,” Escott said. “Nobody actually knows what the conflict is. Not Emirates, Emirates has no idea. Nobody has any idea.”

Early Saturday, at least 145 planes bound for cities such as Tel Aviv and Dubai were diverted to airports in cities such as Athens, Istanbul or Rome, according to FlightAware. The others turned and went back to where they had gone. One plane left Philadelphia, flew all the way to Spain, stayed in the air for about 15 hours, then turned around and went back to where it started.

Several airlines canceled international flights to Dubai over the weekend as India’s civil aviation authority designated much of the Middle East, including the skies over Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, as a high-security risk zone at all altitudes.

Air India canceled all flights to Middle East destinations. Turkish Airlines announced that flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan, and flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman were suspended until Monday.

The airline said additional cancellations may be announced and many other airlines suspended flights to the region over the weekend.

US-based Delta Air Lines and United Airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv at least through the weekend. Dutch airline KLM announced at the beginning of the week that it had suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv.

Airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France, Transavia and Pegasus canceled all flights to Lebanon, while American Airlines suspended flights from Philadelphia to Doha.

Virgin Atlantic said it would avoid flying over Iraq; This means flights to and from India, Maldives and Riyadh may take slightly longer. The airline was not flying via Iran anyway and said all flights would carry appropriate fuel in case they had to re-route at short notice.

British Airways said flights to Tel Aviv and Bahrain would be suspended until next week, while flights to Amman, Jordan, were also canceled on Saturday.

“Travelers should anticipate a lot of disruption,” Harteveldt said. “Honestly, if you haven’t left home, if you have to travel to these places for at least a few days, or even longer, you probably won’t be able to leave home. And if you’re returning home, you’re going to have to be very creative about how you get home.”

Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed from Bangkok