United States Iran conflict disrupts thousands of flights as Middle East hubs shut

Dubai, March 1, 2026 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) – Global air travel remained heavily disrupted on Sunday as continued air strikes kept major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international hub, closed in one of the sharpest aviation shocks in recent years.

Key transit airports, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Doha in Qatar, were shut or operating under severe restrictions as much of the region’s airspace remained closed after United States and Israeli strikes on Saturday that Israel said killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday, while loud blasts were heard for a second day near Dubai and over Doha after Iran launched retaliatory air attacks on neighbouring Gulf states, according to the report.

Dubai International Airport sustained damage during Iran’s attacks, while airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were also hit.

Thousands of flights were affected across the Middle East, according to data on flight tracking platform FlightAware. Airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar remained virtually empty, maps by Flightradar24 showed early on Sunday.

A new notice to airmen extended the closure of Iranian airspace until at least 0830 GMT on March 3, the flight tracking service said.

Airport closures sent ripple effects far beyond the Middle East, leaving thousands of travellers stranded across Asia and Europe. Long queues formed at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, passengers waited for flight information at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, and departure boards in Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport showed a long list of cancellations.

Dubai and Doha sit at the crossroads of east west air travel, funnelling long haul traffic between Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled networks of connecting flights. With those hubs idle, aircraft and crews were left out of position, disrupting airline schedules worldwide.

“It’s the sheer volume of people and the complexity,” United Kingdom based aviation analyst John Strickland was quoted as saying. “It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all over place.”

Airlines across Europe, Asia and the Middle East cancelled or rerouted flights to avoid closed or restricted airspace, lengthening journeys and raising fuel costs. The disruption was intensified by the loss of Iranian and Iraqi overflight routes, which had become more important since the Russia Ukraine war forced airlines to avoid both countries’ airspace.

The Middle East airspace closures were squeezing airlines into narrower corridors, with fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan adding a further risk, Flightradar24 communications director Ian Petchenik was quoted as saying. He warned that any escalation that results in airspace closures would have drastic consequences for travel between Europe and Asia.

Air India cancelled flights on Sunday departing from Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar for major cities in Europe and North America, according to the report