Telenews editorial team; TELENEWS/EPA
Passengers on the first charter flight carrying 127 Italians who were stranded in Oman or in transit from the United Arab Emirates to Oman, upon arrival at Fiumicino Airport, in Rome, Italy.
Thousands stranded at Persian Gulf airports. This is the most serious disruption in air traffic since the start of the pandemic in 2019.
Thousands of passengers remain stranded in the Persian Gulf countries, after the joint operation launched by Israel and the United States against Iran forced the closure of several of the region’s most important airports.
One of them is the Dubai airportin the United Arab Emirates, which canceled 100% of operations on Sunday and began to slowly reestablish flights the following day. This airport registers the largest international air traffic in the worldwith around a thousand flights per day, according to Reuters.
The impact of the cancellations was particularly severe on Sunday, the day immediately following the attack on Iran. AFP reported that airlines in the region (including Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways) had to cancel between 30% and 41% of your total flights.
On Tuesday, the Flightradar24 portal, which tracks air traffic around the world, indicated that several flights took off from the United Arab Emirates following a route south, completely avoiding the Persian Gulf. This is the most serious disruption in air traffic since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2019, according to Reuters.
Operations under uncertainty
Cancellations became less and less noticeable, but remained high on Tuesday, according to the FlightAware portal. They concentrated on the airports of Dubai, Tel Aviv (Israel), Bahrain, Doha (Qatar) and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). On Tuesday alone, Dubai airport had to cancel 424 landings and 413 takeoffs.
On the other hand, the Israeli authorities decided to keep Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv closed until Wednesday and resume operations with just one passenger flight per hour.
With these closures, a large part of air traffic began to be diverted to the airport in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, increasing the flow of passengers at that terminal.
And the tickets reached extraordinary prices. A French trader told Reuters that “when tickets costing between 500 and 800 euros increase to 5,000 or 6,000 euros”, it is “quite unpleasant”.
Humanitarian flights
Security concerns have led several European countries to move forward with evacuation plans to remove their citizens from the Middle East. By midday this Thursday, 10 EU countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia and Austria) had activated the Civil Protection Mechanism for repatriation.
Any country in Europe or beyond can request emergency assistance through the activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, with the European Commission having the role of coordinating the response to disasters and contributing to the transport and operational costs of repatriation flights. Still, countries have to formalize requests for assistance.
A European source explained to Lusa that “there is still nothing specific about Portugalno request [para ter passageiros noutro voo] or availability” to take other EU citizens. But, he stressed, “it’s not because Portugal hasn’t activated [o mecanismo] that Portuguese passengers cannot be on board”, given the principle of European solidarity.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot declared that there would be around 400 thousand French citizens affected by the conflict. Among them, residents and people with dual nationality. “We are preparing charter flights to benefit the most vulnerable,” said Barrot.
Germany announced on Monday the sending of planes to Saudi Arabia and Oman. The objective is to remove approximately 30 thousand German citizens of the region.
The United Kingdom and Spain also announced the departure of humanitarian flights to evacuate their citizens from the Middle East.
The United States stated that, in recent days, around 9 thousand Americans returned homeincluding around 300 who were in Israel.
The country also confirmed that the US State Department is actively ensuring humanitarian flights for more people, with departures from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. According to the State Department, commercial flight options continue to exist in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Egypt. The organization stated that it is “actively helping US citizens book these tickets”.
