Global air travel was disrupted again on Sunday as continued airstrikes kept major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai, the world's busiest international hub, closed, in what is seen as one of the sharpest aviation shocks in recent years.
Key transit airports, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Doha in Qatar, were shut or severely restricted as much of the region’s airspace remained closed, with the Gulf grappling with uncertainty after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Israel said it launched another wave of strikes on Iran on Sunday, while loud blasts were heard for a second day near Dubai and over Doha, after Iran launched retaliatory air attacks on the neighboring Gulf states.
Dubai International Airport sustained damage during Iran's attacks, while airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were also hit.
Thousands of flights have been affected across the Middle East since the U.S. first launched attacks on Iran on Saturday, according to data on FlightAware, a flight tracking platform.
More than 3,400 flights were said have been canceled on Sunday across seven airports in the Middle East, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.
Emirates Airlines suspended all flights to and from Dubai until at least Sunday afternoon. The Qatar airport was also closed until at least Monday morning, according to Qatar Airways.
Israeli airspace also remained closed Sunday. Israeli airline El Al said it was preparing a recovery effort to bring home Israelis stranded abroad once the airspace reopened.
Ripple effects
The airport closures have rippled far beyond the Middle East.
Dubai and neighboring Doha sit at the crossroads of East-West air travel, funnelling long-haul traffic between Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled networks of connecting flights. With those hubs idle, aircraft and crews remained stranded out of position, disrupting airline schedules worldwide.
"It's the sheer volume of people and the complexity," said U.K.-based aviation analyst John Strickland.
"It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all over the place."
Airlines across Europe, Asia and the Middle East cancelled or rerouted flights to avoid closed or restricted airspace, lengthening journeys and driving up fuel costs.
The disruption has been intensified by the loss of Iranian and Iraqi overflight routes, which had grown more important since the Russia-Ukraine war forced airlines to avoid both countries' airspace.
The Middle East airspace closures were squeezing airlines into narrower corridors, with fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan adding a further risk, said Ian Petchenik, communications director at Flightradar24.
"The risk of protracted disruption is the main concern from a commercial aviation perspective," Petchenik said.
"Any escalation in the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan that results in the closure of airspace would have drastic consequences for travel between Europe and Asia."
"For travelers, there's no way to sugarcoat this," The Associated Press (AP) quoted Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, as saying.
"You should prepare for delays or cancellations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end."
Airlines that are crossing the Middle East will have to reroute flights around the conflict with many flights headed south over Saudi Arabia. That will add hours to those flights and consume additional fuel, adding to the costs airlines will have to absorb.
So ticket prices could quickly start to increase if the conflict lingers.
Situation unclear
It is unclear how long the disruption to flight operations could last. For comparison, the Israeli and U.S. attack on Iran in June 2025 lasted 12 days.
The situation was changing quickly and airlines urged passengers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport.
The reverberations echoed far outside the Middle East, for example, airport authorities in the resort island of Bali in Indonesia said more than 1,600 tourists were stranded at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday after five flights to the Middle East were canceled or postponed.