New Delhi, Feb 28 For thousands of travellers heading home, on holiday, or on business trips, Saturday turned into a day of uncertainty and anxious waiting as flights abruptly stopped at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC).
As tensions between Israel and Iran escalated sharply, Dubai Airports announced the suspension of all flight operations “until further notice,” urging passengers not to travel to the airport and to check with airlines for updates.
Inside terminals that usually buzz with more than 1,200 daily departures and arrivals, uncertainty replaced routine. Families checked phones repeatedly for notifications. Transit passengers, who had expected only brief layovers, suddenly found themselves stranded in one of the world’s busiest aviation hubs.
The ripple effects spread quickly across the region. After Israeli airstrikes on Tehran, several countries—including Iraq—closed their airspace. Israel halted civilian flights, and airlines across Europe and the Gulf began cancelling or rerouting services to avoid conflict zones.
For many Indians travelling through Dubai—a key global transit point—the disruption hit especially hard. Major carriers such as Emirates, flydubai, IndiGo, and Air India were affected.
Air India announced it had suspended all flights to destinations across the Middle East, saying passenger and crew safety remained its highest priority. A spokesperson for Air India Express echoed similar concerns, confirming that west-bound international services had been halted.
For travellers, the geopolitical developments unfolding thousands of kilometres away suddenly became deeply personal—missed weddings, delayed reunions, postponed meetings, and anxious calls to loved ones.
As the United States and Israel launched coordinated operations in Iran, fears of a wider regional confrontation grew. On the ground in Dubai and across the Gulf, however, the immediate reality was simpler: long queues at help desks, hurried rebooking attempts, and the quiet hope that skies would reopen soon.
