UAE reveals plan to ramp up repatriation flights

• UAE ramps up flights from DXB
• Repatriation and recovery priority
• Thousands of passengers stranded

The UAE is sharply ramping up repatriation flights as it begins to reopen its airspace, accelerating efforts to bring home tens of thousands of stranded residents and restore confidence in one of the world’s busiest transit hubs.

Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, the economy and tourism minister, said emergency corridors are already handling up to 48 flights an hour, successfully transporting almost 17,500 passengers across 60 flights so far, with capacity set to expand further as security assessments allow. 

“We’ve already sent out flights to bring back travellers caught up in the current situation through our airports, rolling this out in stages,” he said during a UAE government media briefing on Tuesday.

Authorities are preparing to scale operations to more than 80 scheduled flights a day in the next phase, ready to move more than 27,000 passengers.

“We’re rolling out the regional emergency plans that are set up for a crisis just like this,” said Al Marri, who added the UAE is working with neighbouring countries “to set up special air routes to manage emergencies safely”.

Airspace over the UAE and much of the wider region has been shut since Saturday, when Iran launched retaliatory strikes across the GCC following coordinated attacks by the US and Israel that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The closure effectively grounded one of the world’s busiest international gateways – there are about 900,000 seats per day scheduled to fly to the Middle East from points abroad, and within the region – leaving thousands of transit passengers stranded and forcing carriers to suspend or divert long-haul services linking Europe, Asia and Africa. 

Since the conflict began there have been more than 32,000 flights scheduled to arrive or depart from the Middle East, of which about 19,000 have been cancelled, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium

Dubai-based Emirates confirmed on Tuesday that commercial operations to and from its base at Dubai International Airport (DXB) would remain suspended until 23:59 UAE time on Wednesday.

The state-backed carrier has been operating a limited number of passenger repatriation and freighter flights since Monday night.

‘Working diligently’

Emirates’ sister carrier Flydubai partially resumed its schedule on Tuesday with limited flights from Terminals 2 and 3 at DXB. “We are working diligently to ramp up operations once temporary restrictions are lifted,” it said in a statement.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, which has also been operating select repatriation and cargo flights, announced that scheduled flights will continue to be suspended until 2pm on Thursday.

Almost 24 percent of scheduled flights in the UAE took to the skies on Tuesday, according to the figures from Cirium.

Qatar Airways announced on Tuesday morning that commercial operations would be suspended for another day, with a further update to be provided on Wednesday at 9am local time. Just five flights took off from Hamad International Airport on Tuesday.

Gulf Air also confirmed that flights would remain grounded, with the next update due on Wednesday at 11am local time.

There was no movement at all at Bahrain International Airport on Tuesday, while Kuwait International Airport saw almost 36 percent of flights take off.

Saudia has confirmed that flights to and from Amman, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Moscow and Peshawar will remain cancelled until 23:59 GMT on Wednesday. Airports across the kingdom were among the busiest with close to 80 percent of flights taking off.

Oman Air has cancelled all flights to and from Amman, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Dammam, Kuwait, Copenhagen, Baghdad and Khasab through until Friday. About 20 flights left the sultanate on Tuesday.

Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign minister, said on Tuesday that Britain was working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat, Oman to prioritise the evacuation of vulnerable British nationals, according to Reuters.

Cooper, addressing lawmakers in parliament, said she was in close contact with her counterparts in the Gulf countries, where 130,000 British citizens have now registered their presence in the region.

“We are also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, with priority for vulnerable nationals,” Cooper said, as quoted by Reuters.

“A government charter fight will fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals, but British nationals in Oman must wait to be contacted by the foreign office regarding these options.”

German tourism group TUI will begin to offer flights back home to customers stranded in the Middle East from Tuesday, according to CEO Sebastian Ebel, who was speaking to broadcaster NTV.

He said around 30,000 German tourists were currently stuck in the region, with TUI customers making up one third.

Indian operator SpiceJet announced it was to operate four special flights from the UAE on Tuesday to repatriate stranded Indians. Operations between Fujairah and Delhi and Mumbai will start on Wednesday.

Air France announced on Monday that it had cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh up to and including Thursday. KLM, the Dutch arm of the group, has cancelled flights to and from Dammam, Dubai and Riyadh until March 9.