As airlines steer clear of Middle Eastern conflict zones, flights to Dubai have been cancelled by British Airways and Singapore Airlines following the US’s strikes on three nuclear installations in Iran.
Since the battle between Israel and Iran restricted airspace above Israel, Iraq, and Jordan, more than 150 airlines, including Air France-KLM, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines, have already cancelled or diverted flights.
Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran on Saturday, little over a week after Israel fired missiles at Tehran, has intensified the Middle East war and raised the possibility of Iranian retribution against the United States.
Because European carriers were already avoiding Russian airspace for flights to Asia due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, commentators have suggested that the additional disruption makes matter worse for them.
“We had already taken measures such as rerouting [but] this situation is more serious than last week,” said one person familiar with the discussions at a large European airline.
According to inform from Flightrader24, a website that tracks air traffic, one British Airways flight that was scheduled to depart London Heathrow for Dubai at 9:53 p.m. on Saturday was diverted and arrived in Zurich nine hours later.
All BA flights to Dubai and Doha were suspended on Sunday, while flights to Doha were also cancelled on Saturday. Flights to Bahrain had previously been suspended by the UK carrier until June 30.
“As a result of recent events, we have adjusted our flight schedule to ensure the safety of our customers and crew,” BA said. Following”a security assessment of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East,” Singapore Airlines announced the cancellation of two flights between Singapore and Dubai on Sunday.
Flightrader24 reports that since the start of the Israel-Iran war, there have been over 3000 flight cancellations each day across the Middle East.
According to its data, flights were being redirected across Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while airspace over Iran, Iraq, and Syria was largely clear. American Airlines, United Airlines, and Finnair had all cancelled flights to Doha or Dubai just days before the strikes. KLM halted all of its flights from Amsterdam to Dubai, Dammam, and Riyadh.
According to The Times of Israel, Israel closed its airspace earlier on Sunday, but local airline Arkia announced that it will start operating rescue flights to return Israelis who were stranded overseas at 2:00 PM.
Following the US bombings, there have been no additional indications of disruptions to commercial jet traffic in the Middle East, according to Flightrader24.
“Following US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, commercial traffic in the region is operating as it has since new airspace restrictions were put into place last week,” it said on social media.
