03/01/2026
⚠️ Travel Advisory: Ongoing Middle East Airspace Closures (As of March 1, 2026)
✈️ Regional Airspace Status
- Airspace closures: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, Qatar and parts of the UAE have closed or heavily restricted their airspace following recent strikes, with no firm reopening timelines yet published.
- UAE: The UAE has announced a temporary, partial airspace closure, leading to widespread disruption at Dubai and Abu Dhabi; several UAE and foreign carriers have suspended services to and from these hubs for defined periods
- Qatar & Bahrain: Qatari and Bahraini airspace are currently closed to civilian traffic, and airlines have paused operations to Doha and Manama pending further updates from authorities.
- Kuwait: Kuwait is among the states that have closed their airspace due to the regional security situation, with restrictions extended until further notice.
🧭 Major Hub Disruption
- Dubai (DXB) & Abu Dhabi (AUH): Both major UAE hubs have been either temporarily closed or operating under severe restrictions, with hundreds of flights cancelled and tens of thousands of travelers stranded or rerouted.
Many airlines (including Emirates, Etihad, Wizz Air and others) have issued suspensions on selected routes into these hubs, generally into the first week of March, with dates varying by carrier.
- Doha (DOH): With Qatari airspace closed, Qatar Airways has temporarily suspended operations to and from Doha and is reviewing the situation on a rolling basis, advising passengers to monitor official updates.
- Other regional gateways: Multiple airports across the Middle East remain closed or severely constrained, contributing to widespread cancellations and diversions across global networks.
🌍 Rerouting & Global Impact
- The usual Middle East transit corridor between Europe, Africa and Asia is largely impassable, forcing airlines to route around closed airspace.
- Reroute patterns: Many carriers are diverting via more northerly tracks over Central Asia and the Caucasus, or via southerly tracks over the Arabian Sea and parts of Africa, depending on origin and destination.
- Flight times: Long‑haul journeys, especially between Europe and Asia or Oceania, are seeing significant additional flight time; in many cases, itineraries are extended by several hours, and some flights are turning back to their departure airports when routings are no longer viable.
📝 Agent Note :
Given how quickly advisories are changing, travelers should check their flight status directly with the airline and monitor official airport and civil aviation authority channels before heading to the airport.
