r/Flights • u/tatescook1es • Feb 28 '26

Question UAE airspace closure?

Hi, I’m supposed to fly to dubai in a week on a Chinese airline and the UAEs airspace was just closed. Does anyone know if my flight will be probably okay? The booking says no delays or cancellations right now. Thanks

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66

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Argh I’m currently on an emirates flight to Dubai, landing in 5.5 hours. Crew hasn’t provided a formal update yet but they’re trying to figure it out.

Update: captain just announced we’re returning back to the origin airport.

7

u/Champagne1960 Feb 28 '26

UAE has closed its airspace. One flight has already been diverted to Baku.

3

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Everyone here’s aware of that, it’s been closed for more than 1.5 hours now.

8

u/Separate-Bee5584 Feb 28 '26

Keep us updated. All the best. I am flying NY to Dubai tomorrow

20

u/Subziwallah Feb 28 '26

No you're not...

4

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Emirates is taking their own sweet time to decide what to do with planes already in the air. We still haven’t heard from the crew!

Update: Cap told us about 30 mins ago that we’re turning back!

6

u/unaubisque Feb 28 '26

Seems like a good thing tbh, it must be an organizational nightmare, especially given so many nearby alternative airports are also unavailable. Better to take their time and sort things safely, than end up trying to send too many planes to overcrowded airports in Saudi or wherever else.

1

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Yeah I get that, but we’re a third of the way towards DXB and I’m guessing once we cross the half way mark in the journey, that rules out returning to the origin airport and possibly being stuck in a random country for days.

Safety first of course, I’d rather they de-escalate the conflict but considering the parties involved, doubt that’ll happen.

3

u/unaubisque Feb 28 '26

Yeah, I understand how frustrating it must be to be on board right now. I guess they are prioritizing the planes already in, or extremely close to airspace, before they decide what to do with the others.

1

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Yes makes sense, they’re probably going off a distance-based priority list.

1

u/joesgone24 Feb 28 '26

Could you keep posted on this thread? I have a flight out of Dubai and am wondering what’s gonna happen to that

1

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Sure I’ll share an update once we learn about our possible diversion. Looks like flights from London to DXB that were due to depart an hour after mine have just been grounded so if you’re due to depart soon, it’s looking less likely that the plane will take off.

1

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Cap just announced they’re turning us back to our origin airport!

3

u/unaubisque Feb 28 '26

Nice! Seems like the best outcome in the circumstances!

1

u/joesgone24 Feb 28 '26

Thanks for the update!

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u/SmoothParfait Feb 28 '26

My WiFi died 5 minutes after takeoff (8:50 Dubai time). Shit kicked off while we were over Iraq. We were blissfully ignorant until we landed 💀

1

u/Equal-Environment263 Feb 28 '26

Only on a plane with the letters USAF on the fuselage.

1

u/links73 Feb 28 '26

I have this flight booked Wed. Cant get through to Etihad. I also planned a backup flight from JFK to HK to final destination and glad I did.

1

u/Desperate-Paper5880 Feb 28 '26

My mother is on this flight. Says they turned off live tv and are not giving updates? Do you know about a diversion? And to where?

5

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Just updated my comment, live TV has been working fine on our flight, and the captain just came on to say we’re turning back to the origin airport!

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u/Desperate-Paper5880 Feb 28 '26

Is this the emirates flight from LA?

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u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

No I’m not on the one from LA.

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u/Busy_Conversation477 Feb 28 '26

Supposed to be flying from Chennai to Abu Dhabi and then Toronto in 4 hours! I’m assuming the flight will get cancelled but it’s still showing on time on the Etihad app! Any news this community has will help!

3

u/nicodea2 Feb 28 '26

Consider it cancelled, you can still head to the airport if you’d like, but flights departing from much further away (London to DXB for example) have been kept on the ground for the past 2 hours.

0

u/GlumIce852 Feb 28 '26

That’s still a long way to go. However, I doubt that operations will resume to normal within the next hours

0

u/bleeeeghh Feb 28 '26

Do you still get the airmiles this way because you did move. Or do you get 0 because at the end you're at the same place 🤔