5 min readNew DlehiUpdated: Mar 5, 2026 01:07 PM IST
As the war in Middle East continues to rage, a number of travellers remain stuck at various parts of the Gulf nations, unable to return to their countries to due closure of airspaces in the affected region. Even as a few airlines have limited number services, ticket prices have sky-rocketted due to the high demand as the stranded travellers try to navigate their way way back home.
People travelling to other countries through the countries are also trying to find diverted routes to their destinations, resulting in hassles and delays.
According to flight tracking website FlightAware, over 1,507 flights were cancelled on Thursday as of 11 am, and the total number of flight delayed so far is close to 3,400.
Emirates still is the most affected airlines so far with 338 cancellations on Thursday so far, followed by Qatar Airways. (241 cancellations).
10 Airlines with highest number of flight cancellations.
| Airline | No. of Flights Cancelled | |
| 1 | Emirates | 338 |
| 2 | Qatar Airways | 241 |
| 3 | Etihad Airways | 180 |
| 4 | flydubai | 96 |
| 5 | IndiGo | 92 |
| 6 | El Al | 78 |
| 7 | Saudia | 40 |
| 8 | Royal Jordanian | 32 |
| 9 | SpiceJet | 24 |
| 10 | American Airlines | 22 |
Emirates
Emirates has issued a statement informing its passengers. that flights to and from Dubai will remain suspended until 2359hrs UAE time on 7 March, due to airspace closures across the region. “Emirates continues to operate a limited flight schedule: http://emirat.es/flightstatus. We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority on these limited flights.” It stated that customers transiting in Dubai will only be accepted for travel if their connecting flight is operating.
Qatar Airways
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways has started operating a limited number relief flights from March 5 to support passengers who are stranded due to the current situation across the region. The following are the services Qatar Airways has resumed
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• Flights from Muscat to: London Heathrow, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Rome, and Amsterdam
• Flight from Riyadh to Frankfurt
However, passengers have been requested not to proceed to the airport unless they have received an official notification from Qatar Airways for these flights.
Even as Dubai International Airport continues to see most number of flight cancellations, the number of cancellations from the airport have come down to 259 while 278 flights that were scheduled to land there on Tuesday were cancelled so far.
5 Origin airports with most number of flight cancellations
Rise in ticket prices
Since the flight operations to and from West Asia countries such as Iran, Iraq, Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE have not fully resumed, extremely high demand has resulted in sharp rise in the airfares.
Several Indians stranded in Dubai in the aftermath of the US-Israel attack on Iran and Iran’s retaliation are being forced to spend lakhs of rupees in unforeseen costs. This includes extra days of hotel accommodations and expensive tickets for the few flights that have resumed to come back to India.
Vinod Solanki, who had earlier told The Indian Express that he was stranded in Dubai with four members of his family, has had to spend lakhs for the four extra days of stay and tickets till now. He said, “I got two tickets for SpiceJet flight tomorrow so two family members are leaving from Dubai to Delhi and a connecting flight to Pune. I got the tickets for over Rs 80,000 per person. I have been spending Rs 25,000 per day here on food and accommodation. I was supposed to come back to Pune on 28 February so it has been four extra days now. Otherwise the situation is quite safe here.”
Even for those whose flights did not get cancelled, unexpected costs have come up. Neil Kohlatkar from Pune, who reached Mumbai by an Emirates flight from Dubai on March 4, had booked a Rs 60,000 ticket for a charter flight from the Fujairah International Airport in anticipation that his original flight would get cancelled. “Emirates has informed you that you should only go to the airport if you are informed your flight is taking off. I did not get this update. But I messaged them on Twitter and they said my flight is on. So I just took a chance and reached the airport, and luckily my flight took off.”
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