🔴 UPDATE (Day 27): What’s Changed in Middle East Airspace And What It Means for Your Flight
A pilot’s guide to navigating the Gulf travel chaos where flights still operate and how to move through the disruption safely and efficiently.
How to get in, get out, find the best deals, and avoid the worst disruptions
Updated March 27, 2026 · 12 min read
🔴 UPDATE March 27: Day 27. Here’s what’s changed since the last update.
EASA bulletin expires today — expect another extension. The CZIB covering Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia at all altitudes expires today, March 27. EASA and the European Commission say they will continue to monitor whether the risk level increases or decreases EASA. The last revision on March 18 added a narrow exception: operators can transit through parts of southern Oman and Saudi Arabia south of the OBSOT-DANOM-KEDON-VELOD line, at FL320 or above only, and only with a current risk assessment Bizav Ops. Expect renewal into April — no one in the industry thinks this is getting lifted this week.
Emirates holding steady at ~70% capacity. Emirates is operating roughly 70% of its pre-crisis schedule, while flydubai is running at about 30% LoyaltyLobby. These numbers have been stable for over a week. Emirates says it’s aiming to restore 100% of network capacity by March 29, but that’s contingent on airspace availability and security conditions Wego Travel Blog and given what we’ve seen, I’d take that date with a large grain of salt. DXB itself is reportedly operating at around 40–45% of normal traffic. Emirates has extended Skywards tier status and paused miles expiry through June 30, and its flexible cancellation/refund policy now covers flights through April 30.
Qatar Airways still severely constrained. Qatar Airways is operating roughly 39 departing passenger flights from Doha today — about 25% of pre-crisis capacity LoyaltyLobby. That’s up from the 15 daily flights they were running for the first two-plus weeks, but it’s plateaued. The airline has sent several aircraft into storage in Spain and Thailand LoyaltyLobby not the move of a carrier expecting a fast rebound. Qatar Airways yesterday extended its flexible cancellation and change policy for flights through June 15, 2026 LoyaltyLobby, which tells you everything about their internal timeline. The planned March 28 “full restart” is now better understood as a gradual expansion to 33 additional destinations through April 15. Etihad is running at roughly 50% of pre-war capacity Wego Travel Blog.
Western carriers pulling back further, not closer. The suspensions have gotten dramatically longer since my last update:
Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels, ITA, Edelweiss): All flights to Dubai suspended through May 31 Time Out Dubai. Eurowings has suspended Dubai flights until October 24, 2026 Travel And Tour World. Tel Aviv through at least May 31.
British Airways: Flights to Amman, Bahrain, Dubai, and Tel Aviv cancelled through May 31. Doha cancelled through April 30 Euronews. Abu Dhabi still gone through at least October (as reported March 10).
KLM: Dubai, Riyadh, and Dammam suspended through May 17. Tel Aviv through April 11 Time Out Dubai.
Air France: Dubai suspended through March 31 Time Out Dubai. Tel Aviv and Beirut through early April. Riyadh through March 31.
Cathay Pacific: Dubai and Riyadh suspended through May 31 Euronews.
Air Canada: Dubai suspended through April 30. Tel Aviv through May 2.
Finnair: Doha and Dubai through at least March 28.
Aegean: Dubai and Riyadh suspended through April 19; Tel Aviv, Beirut, and Amman through April 23 Scandinavian Airlines.
The pattern is clear: every time these airlines update their advisories, the dates push further out. We’re no longer talking about weeks. Some of these are now measured in months.
Gulf Air still operating from Dammam. Bahrain’s flag carrier has expanded its temporary operations from King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, running special flights to Paris, Manila, Cairo, Casablanca, Chennai, Frankfurt, Nairobi, London, Mumbai, and Bangkok Euronews through at least March 28. Bahrain’s own airspace remains effectively closed.
Strait of Hormuz: Iran formalizing control. This is no longer a blockade — it’s becoming a managed toll system. On March 26, Iran’s Foreign Minister announced that ships from China, Russia, India, Iraq, and Pakistan would be allowed to transit Wikipedia. Western-flagged ships remain blocked. Iran is now charging commercial ships up to $2 million to transit the strait, with an Iranian lawmaker confirming the fees cover the country’s war costs CBS News. Before this crisis, passage was free and protected under international law. Israel says it killed the Iranian naval commander Alireza Tangsiri on March 26, accusing him of directly overseeing the Hormuz blockade Wikipedia. Daily transit is down to about 6 ships from the pre-crisis average of 130 per day. Some 20,000 sailors remain stranded on hundreds of ships in the Gulf, with at least seven seafarers killed in Iranian attacks NBC News.
Diplomacy going nowhere fast. Trump extended his deadline for striking Iranian power plants by 10 days to April 6, saying “talks are ongoing” NPR. Iran has responded with a five-point counterproposal demanding sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and a complete end to “aggression” The Hill — Iran’s Foreign Minister said there are no negotiations taking place, only messages through mediators Al Jazeera. Israel is accelerating strikes on Iranian weapons factories and infrastructure in Isfahan Fox News. The Pentagon is considering sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the region. No ceasefire is imminent.
Jet fuel and the knock-on effects. China and Thailand have suspended jet fuel exports, and Vietnamese authorities have warned their aviation industry to prepare for possible flight reductions in April Expeditors. This is the crisis starting to ripple well beyond the Middle East.
The bottom line from the flight deck: We are now 27 days in. The temporary workarounds — the Dammam hub for Gulf Air, the limited Qatar corridors, the Emirates reduced schedule — are hardening into the new normal. Western carrier suspensions that started as “through mid-March” are now “through May” and in some cases “through October.” The EASA bulletin will almost certainly be extended again. If you’re planning travel through or near the Gulf, build in maximum flexibility, book refundable fares, and do not assume any flight will operate as scheduled. The two corridor system (north through the Caucasus, south through Egypt/western Saudi/Oman) remains intact but congested. If either Turkey/Azerbaijan or Oman gets drawn further into the conflict, even those routes narrow dramatically. Read the full article below for detailed routing guidance — everything still applies, just with longer timelines.
🔴 UPDATE March 18: A lot has happened in the past week. Here’s what you need to know:
Dubai airport hit again badly. On March 16, an Iranian drone struck a fuel storage tank at DXB, igniting a fire and shutting down the world’s busiest international airport for over seven hours — the longest halt since the crisis began. Emirates diverted flights to Al Maktoum and even inland to Al Ain, 130 km from Dubai. This was the fourth drone incident at DXB since Feb 28. The UAE also did a full emergency airspace closure overnight on March 16–17 during fresh missile and drone waves. Emirates has quietly started using Jeddah and Medina as technical refueling stops on some long-haul flights, and shifted some operations to DWC and Abu Dhabi — likely because of the fuel infrastructure damage at DXB.
Qatar Airways is back sort of. Starting today (March 18), Qatar Airways is operating a revised limited schedule to and from Doha connecting to 70+ destinations, running through March 28. Bookings are open. This is a significant step — Doha was fully closed until now. But these are limited approved corridor flights, not a full reopening of Qatari airspace.
Gulf Air now flying from Saudi Arabia. Bahrain’s flag carrier has set up temporary operations from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, running limited flights to London, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Bangkok, and Nairobi through March 28 — since Bahrain itself remains closed.
Lufthansa Group suspended through March 28 for Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman, and Erbil; through April 9 for Tel Aviv; through April 5 for Riyadh. Air France suspended Dubai and Riyadh through March 18–20, Tel Aviv and Beirut through March 18+. Air Canada suspended Dubai and Tel Aviv through March 23.
Iran is letting some ships through selectively. Turkish, Indian, Saudi, and Chinese-flagged vessels have been permitted passage in recent days, but Western-flagged ships remain blocked. Iran has made 21 confirmed attacks on merchant ships since Feb 28.
EASA’s danger bulletin covering Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia at all altitudes expires today expect another extension.
The bottom line from the flight deck: we are now 18 days into this crisis and the situation is not improving. It’s getting more complex. The temporary workarounds are becoming semi-permanent. If you’re planning travel through or near the Gulf, everything in this article still applies — but with more urgency. Read on.
🔴 UPDATE March 10 : British Airways has just announced it is cancelling all flights to and from Abu Dhabi until later this year effectively through the end of 2026. Flights to Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, and Tel Aviv are also cancelled until at least late March, with no new bookings accepted before April 16. BA is running its last repatriation flights from Muscat to London Heathrow on March 11 and 12 after that, those are done too. If you're a BA customer in the Gulf, call +44 203 467 3854 now. This is the first major Western carrier to pull out of a Gulf hub for the rest of the year. It won't be the last.
I’m writing this from home in the US on my days off, watching Flightradar24 paint a picture I’ve never seen in fifteen years of flying long-haul routes through the Middle East: a hole in the sky where one of the world’s busiest aviation crossroads used to be.
Since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28 and Tehran’s retaliatory fire spread across the Gulf, more than 12,300 flights have been cancelled across seven major Middle Eastern airports. Over 20,000 passengers were affected in the UAE alone. Another 8,000 transit passengers remain stuck in Doha. Hundreds of thousands of travelers worldwide have been stranded, rerouted, or left refreshing airline apps at 3 a.m.
This article is for them and for anyone planning to fly to, from, or through the Gulf in the coming weeks. I’m going to give you the information I’d give a friend sitting next to me in the cockpit: what’s actually happening, which airports are functioning, where the deals are hiding, and how to make smart decisions when the usual rules of air travel no longer apply.
The Situation Right Now: What Pilots See
Let me paint the picture from the flight deck. The central Middle East corridor, the airway superhighway connecting Europe to Asia that runs through the Gulf is effectively shut. The airspace over Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Bahrain, and Kuwait is closed. The UAE and Qatar have begun limited operations, but capacity remains a fraction of normal. Missile and drone strikes continue across the region, and on March 7, a drone struck near Terminal 3 at Dubai International, briefly halting all operations again.
EASA (the European aviation safety authority) has issued a bulletin advising operators to avoid the airspace of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia at all altitudes through at least March 11. That’s not a suggestion, it’s the strongest language they use short of a prohibition.
For pilots, this means the two traditional bypass routes are now in heavy use: the northern corridor through the Caucasus and Afghanistan, and the southern route via Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. Both add 60 to 90 minutes to a typical Europe-Asia sector. Fuel costs are up, crews are displaced across five continents, and aircraft are out of position everywhere.
The Two Corridors: What’s Left
Maps from Flightradar24 tell the story more clearly than any briefing could. Air travel between Europe and Asia is increasingly becoming a challenge. Where the Gulf used to be a dense web of crisscrossing traffic — the busiest aviation crossroads on earth there is now a gaping void. The image above shows the conflict zones that have combined to create this crisis: the Iran/Middle East war at the center, Russian aggression in Ukraine to the north, the civil wars in Yemen and Sudan, and the failed state of Somalia to the south.
There are only two corridors left which allow uninterrupted travel between Europe and Asia. The first runs north through the Caucasus (Georgia, Azerbaijan) and over Central Asia. The second threads south through Egypt, across Saudi Arabia’s western airspace, and down through Oman to the Indian Ocean. Both are now carrying the traffic that used to be spread across an entire region. They are narrow, congested, and increasingly fragile.
Here is what concerns me most as a pilot: extending the current war to Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Oman, three countries which already have to deal with Iranian drones and missiles would further complicate matters dramatically.
On March 4, a ballistic missile launched from Iran was intercepted over southern Turkey by NATO air defenses. On March 5, an Iranian drone struck the terminal building at Nakhchivan Airport in Azerbaijan, right on the Iran border. Both of these incidents occurred along the northern bypass corridor, the same corridor that most European carriers are now routing their Asia-bound traffic through.
If either Turkey or Azerbaijan were forced to close their airspace even temporarily, the northern corridor would collapse. If Oman, which has become the critical staging hub for evacuation and repositioning flights, were drawn further into the conflict, the southern corridor would narrow to a thread. At that point, the only viable Europe-to-Asia routing would swing far south over sub-Saharan Africa, adding three to four hours to journeys that already take longer than they should.
This isn’t speculation. It’s what flight planners at every major airline are actively contingency-planning for right now. And it’s why, if you’re booking travel through this region, you need to understand not just what’s closed today but what could close tomorrow.
Airport-by-Airport: The Real Status
Updated March 9-10, 2026. The situation is evolving rapidly, so always confirm with your airline before heading to the airport. I’ll continue updating this article as new developments unfold.
