Dubai-based mega airline has confirmed that it has been given permission to start operating a very limited number of flights from its hub at Dubai International Airport (DXB) beginning on Monday evening.
Earlier on Monday, Emirates announced that it had suspended all regularly scheduled flights until 3 pm on March 3 at the earliest; however, aviation authorities in the United Arab Emirates have now green-lighted so-called ‘exceptional flights’ to a small number of destinations.
The news was confirmed by the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority several hours after a small wave of flights operated by Etihad Airways in neighboring Abu Dhabi departed from the city’s Zayed International Airport (AUH).
In a statement, the GCAA said it had authorized the “commencement of exceptional flight operations at UAE airports, enabling stranded passengers affected by recent regional developments to depart, in line with the schedules to be announced by airlines to affected passengers and the relevant destinations.”
Passengers currently stranded in the UAE have been urged not to travel to the airport until they have been contacted by their airline and confirmed on a flight out of the country.
Emirates later said in a statement posted to its website: “We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority, and those who have been rebooked to travel on these limited flights will be contacted directly by Emirates.”
Flight tracking data supplied by Flight Radar 24 shows that Emirates has flights planned to operate from DXB to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai.
The flights are timed to depart DXB between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm (local) on Monday night.
Just after 2:00 pm on March 2, Etihad Airways operated the first passenger flight out of the UAE with an Airbus A380 superjumbo service to London Heathrow, becoming the first departure since airspace was shuttered on Saturday.
A wave of other flights took off from AUH bound for Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, Mumbai, Delhi, Islamabad, Kochi, Cairo, Bangalore, Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Muscat, and Karachi.
There are also reports that Qatar Airways will attempt to resume a limited number of flights from its hub at Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) with departures currently scheduled for a slew of international destinations.
Officially, however, the airline says that flights are suspended until 9:00 am (local) on Tuesday, and the Qatari civil aviation authority has yet to announce the reopening of airspace over the country.
On Saturday night, Dubai International Airport was damaged by what is understood to have been a direct hit by an Iranian kamikaze drone that penetrated the roof of Terminal 3.
The Dubai Airport Authority said a ‘limited’ amount of damage had been caused to the concourse and confirmed that four people sustained minor injuries in the blast. At the time of the strike, most passengers had already been moved to local hotels.
Clearly, this is a fast-evolving situation, and security conditions could change at short notice. Nonetheless, airlines throughout the region, as well as the rulers of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Qatar, will no doubt be desperate to resume flight operations as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, airlines have committed to covering the costs of hotel accommodation for stranded passengers, while the UAE says it will pay for extended stays of tourists whose trips were already meant have come to an end.
