Select departures organised as US state department warns Americans to leave on commercial flights ‘due to safety risks’
US-Israel war on Iran – live updates
Travellers stranded by a widening war in the Middle East began departing the United Arab Emirates aboard a small number of evacuation flights on Monday, as governments around the world worked to extract their citizens from the region.
Airlines Etihad Airways and Emirates, based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and budget carrier FlyDubai said they would operate limited flights, in the wake of the chaos and damaged sparked by Iranian missiles and drones.
Since Saturday, at least 11,000 flights into, out of and within the Middle East have been cancelled, affecting more than 1 million passengers, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. The travel chaos looks set to continue, with US president Donald Trump saying on Monday that the conflict had been projected to last four to five weeks but that it could go on longer.
