Widespread travel chaos triggered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran has led to the cancellation of nearly 14,000 flights and the temporary closure of airspace across ten Middle Eastern countries
Following the February 28 military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, nearly 14,000 flights have been cancelled across the Middle East, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded and causing “widespread travel disruption” across at least ten countries. According to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24, approximately “two-thirds of scheduled departures” at major regional hubs were halted, with Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest dropping 85% of its flights while Doha, Qatar, recorded cancellation rates as high as 94%.
Although some services began restoring on Wednesday in cities like Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, the “Middle East travel chaos” has significantly impacted international transit, involving more than 300,000 British citizens and prompting the return of over 17,500 Americans to the United States as skies “usually busy with international traffic” remained largely empty.