Major airlines across the Middle East announced they are resuming their flight operations in the area after canceling or rerouting some of their flights when Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles against Israel during an overnight attack.
An Emirates spokesperson said that as of Sunday afternoon, the airline was reinstating its flight schedules to and from Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. The carrier, the largest in the Middle East, had canceled some of its flights and rerouted others after many countries in the region closed airspace temporarily in response to Iran’s attack on Israel.
Qatar Airways also returned their flight schedules to Amman, Baghdad and Beirut, it said in a post on X. The Abu Dhabi-headquartered Etihad Airways announced it will restart its passenger and cargo flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut Monday. It cautioned, however, that the closure of regional countries’ airspace over the weekend has contributed to service disruptions and that the carrier may operate Monday in a more limited capacity.
"There may still be a risk of some knock-on disruption across Monday [April] 15,” it said.
"Some of our flights have been affected by the temporary closure of a number of airspaces in the region," a statement from the United Arab Emirates' Fly Dubai was quoted on state news agency WAM as saying.
Egypt, Kuwait and Lebanon closed their airspace after several Arab countries announced the temporary closure of their airspace Saturday.
Meanwhile, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon announced Sunday morning that they had reopened their airspace.
Israeli airlines also said operations were returning to normal Sunday after the overnight attack closed their airspace and led to flight cancelations.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
