Iranian media say Tehran-Dubai flights will resume on Monday

TEHRAN: Flights between Tehran and Dubai are to resume on Monday, Iranian state media reported, just weeks after Iran hit targets in the UAE with drones and missiles during the Middle East war.

Iranian state TV and other media quoted Ramin Kashefazar, the head of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, as saying that “the necessary arrangements have been made to reopen the Tehran–Dubai route at Imam Khomeini Airport”.

Tickets were available to buy on the website of Iranian airline Sepehran for Monday’s 10.40 am (3.10 pm Malaysian time) flight to Dubai.

Iran’s Mehr news agency, meanwhile, reported that Sepehran would operate another flight departing on Wednesdays at 7pm and that Varesh Airlines would run flights on Tuesdays at the same hour.

Dubai airport was repeatedly targeted by drones during the Middle East war, forcing it to suspend flights at times.

Video footage of one strike early in the war showed a drone crashing to the ground close to the passenger concourse.

Iran retaliated against US-Israeli attacks with missile and drone launches across the Gulf, but said it had targeted US interests and not civilian infrastructure.

Before the war, Dubai airport was the world’s busiest for international passengers, although numbers sank 66% year-on-year during the conflict.

The war has been halted by a ceasefire since April, despite regular exchanges of fire, while US and Iran are currently part way through a 60-day period to negotiate a lasting peace deal.