Middle East flights resume, but many travelers stranded : NPR

Limited flights out of the Middle East resumed on Monday, but hundreds of thousands of travelers are still stranded at major aviation hubs in the region after attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel.

Tourists and business travelers hunkered down in hotels and airports across the Middle East, awaiting word on when airports would reopen, and flights in and out of the region could return to a normal schedule.

“We’re waiting to fly out. Our flights keep getting canceled,” said Kristy Ellmer of Portsmouth, N.H. She traveled to Dubai last week for business meetings, and is now unsure when she’ll be able to leave.

“We’ve had flights booked every day for the week and Sunday was canceled. Monday was canceled. Tuesday’s already been canceled. And so, kind of hoping that the Wednesday flights stay,” Ellmer said in an interview.

Emirates, one of the largest airlines in the world, announced it would resume operating “a limited number of flights” on Monday evening. “We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority,” the airline said in a social media post, but warned that all other flights remain suspended until further notice.

Airlines cancelled more than 3,400 flights in the Middle East on Monday alone, according to a post by the flight-tracking site Flightradar24, bringing the total number of cancellations since the war began to nearly 10,000.

Airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are major hubs for travel between Europe and the Americas, Africa and Asia. Airports in all three cities say they were targeted by Iranian strikes aimed at civilian and military sites in U.S.-friendly states in the Persian Gulf region.

The international airport in Dubai, which is one of the busiest in the world, said that operations resumed with “a small number of flights” on Monday evening, just days after video posted on social media showed passengers fleeing down smoke-filled hallways after a suspected drone strike.

The airport in Abu Dhabi also resumed “partial operations” on Monday, according to a social media post. Flights on Etihad Airways, another major carrier based in Abu Dhabi, appeared to be among the first to take off, according to Flightradar24. Flights in and out of Doha’s main airport “remain temporarily suspended,” the airport said.

It’s not clear how many international travelers remain stranded in the region, but an average of around 90,000 passengers transit through the region’s major hubs every day on just three airlines — Emirates, Etihad, and Doha-based Qatar Airways — according to the aviation analytics company Cirium.

Airspace or airports across the region were closed over the weekend, according to flight tracking sites and government agencies. Many more cancellations are likely in the days ahead as long as air strikes and counter-strikes continue.

That’s left stranded travelers from around the globe scrambling to make alternative plans.

“I deal with uncertainty all the time,” said Kristy Ellmer, whose work as a consultant focuses on helping clients navigate transformation and change. She says that’s helped keep her own situation in perspective.

“We’ve lost a few service members through this. There are people who are living in much worse conditions right now through this conflict. We’re staying at a good hotel that’s taking care of us,” Ellmer said. “So I think just keeping that perspective is also helping me be calm.”