First flights take off from Dubai after Iran strikes, but service is 'limited'

A passenger Mohd Umardaraz from Bijnor Uttar Pradesh stranded at Terminal-3 Delhi airport after his flight for Kuwait is cancelled due to airspace restrictions over Iran and parts of the Middle East on March 1, 2026 in New Delhi, India.

Arvind Yadav | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

The first flights out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, departed Monday after more than 11,000 were canceled in the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday.

It’s a sign of how airlines are preparing to restart service to the region after mass cancellations, but local authorities gave airlines a green light only to resume a “limited number” of flights.

The first was Emirates flight EK500, which departed at 9:12 p.m. 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 Tuesday, Flightradar24 said. An Air Baltic plane left Dubai but the Latvia-based carrier said it was solely a repositioning flight, not carrying passengers.

Separately, Israeli airline El Al said Monday that it’s considering chartering private jets to bring stranded Israeli citizens home.

The announcements mark a potential improvement after air travel ground to a halt in a large swath of the Middle East over the weekend following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliatory strikes.

The attacks shut airspace over a large part of the region, stranding hundreds of thousands of customers around the world, including those who weren’t flying to and from the area since aircraft couldn’t transit those zones. Dubai is one of the busiest air travel hubs in the world.

Read more U.S.-Iran war news

• Iran foreign minister says U.S. invasion disaster for them
• War powers vote fails in the Senate, allowing Trump to continue Iran strikes
• Iran war threatens $11.7 trillion global travel industry as passengers get caught in crossfire
• Anthropic officially told by DOD that it’s a supply chain risk even as Claude used in Iran
• I was on an Emirates flight to Dubai that turned around because of Iranian missiles
• Iran’s Shahed drone: How ‘the poor man’s cruise missile’ is shaping Tehran’s retaliation

The airport authority that owns and manages airports in Dubai said a small number of flights would be permitted to operate from Dubai International and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International, but advised travelers to check with their airlines.

For its part, Emirates said it will start operating a “limited number of flights” Monday night and urged customers not to go to the airport unless notified by the airline.

“We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority,” it said in a post on X. “All other flights remain suspended until further notice,” it said.

El Al said it is considering hiring KlasJet planes to take passengers from European airports to Aqaba, over the southern border in Jordan, for customers of the airline. It previously considered flying in and out of Taba, Egypt, but later Monday said that plan was scrapped “due to the lack of approval from the security authorities in Israel.”

Etihad Airways based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, said Monday that all commercial flights to and from the city are suspended until afternoon local time on Wednesday, though it could operate some cargo and repatriation flights “subject to strict operational and safety protocols.”