Middle East airspace shutdown cancels thousands of flights

• More than 1 in 4 Mena flights affected
• Qatar Airways hardest hit
• Around 35% of UAE flights cancelled

More than 3,500 flights across the Middle East had been cancelled as of March 1 after a sharp escalation in regional conflict forced widespread airspace closures and grounded aircraft across the Gulf.

The disruption followed coordinated strikes by the US and Israel on Iran on Saturday, which were met with retaliatory missile and drone attacks targeting US military bases across the Gulf, including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Authorities temporarily shut airspace in several countries as the attacks unfolded, diverting inbound flights and halting departures.

More than a quarter of all flights scheduled by airlines in the Middle East and North Africa on Saturday were scrapped, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

Doha-based Qatar Airways was among the hardest hit, with 219 services cancelled. Dubai’s Emirates Airline grounded 197 of its 512 planned departures, leaving aircraft parked on the tarmac as regional hubs suspended operations.

Cancellations are set to extend into Sunday.

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Almost 35 percent of flights departing the UAE have been called off, while more than half of scheduled departures from Doha’s Hamad International Airport have been scrapped.

Elsewhere in the region, nearly 49 percent of flights in Israel were cancelled, alongside 44 percent in Bahrain, 28 percent in Kuwait and about 16 percent in Oman, Cirium data show.

“That will likely continue to grow overnight or for however long the conflict continues,” a Cirium spokesperson said, underscoring the risk of prolonged disruption to one of the world’s busiest long-haul transit corridors.