Flying Today From the UAE: Every Cancellation, Extension and Advisory You Need to Know
Air travel to and from the UAE has settled into an uneasy rhythm over the past several days — not the wholesale grounding some feared when tensions flared, but a steady drip of extended suspensions, rerouted schedules and fresh paperwork requirements that together add up to real disruption for anyone flying this week. Two of the world's most-watched carriers, British Airways and Singapore Airlines, both pushed their Gulf suspensions further into the calendar this week, a signal that airlines are still not ready to fully commit to the region even as the immediate security picture eases in places.
British Airways and Singapore Airlines extend their timelines
Dubai passengers booked with British Airways have been given an additional week to cancel or change their travel plans, after the airline extended its Middle East flexibility policy until October 31. That flexibility window matters for anyone holding a ticket booked well before the current unrest began, since it gives more breathing room to shift dates without eating a change fee.
Singapore Airlines moved in the same direction. Flights between Singapore and Dubai have been cancelled until October 24, the airline announced on Thursday — a notable jump from the airline's earlier, shorter-dated suspension, and one more sign that long-haul carriers are pencilling in autumn rather than summer as their realistic restart point.
A new hurdle for India-bound passengers
Anyone connecting onward to India from the UAE now has an extra step before boarding. Travellers must complete Air Suvidha 2.0, a mandatory digital health declaration, in response to the World Health Organization designating the Ebola/Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The form can be filled out up to 24 hours ahead of arrival on the official Air Suvidha portal, and there's no extra paperwork needed on landing — passengers simply show the downloaded confirmation at the health desk or immigration counter. It's a small administrative addition, but one that's easy to overlook amid everything else changing this week, and immigration staff in Indian airports have reportedly been turning away passengers who arrive without it.
Saudi Arabia's Abha Airport bears the brunt
The sharpest disruption this week has centred on Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, which came under missile and drone attack from Yemen's Houthi movement — the first major escalation of its kind in years, though no casualties were reported. The knock-on effect on schedules has been significant: at least 11 departures from Abha were axed in a single day, including services to Dubai, Sharjah, Riyadh and Jeddah, with six of those Saudia flights and two flyadeal Jeddah services among the casualties. Flydubai cancelled its FZ815 and FZ811 rotations, while Air Arabia pulled flight G9195 to Sharjah. The day before had already seen roughly ten departures cancelled on the same corridor. Multiple governments have since sharpened their guidance for the area: Canada's updated advisory urges a high degree of caution nationwide in Saudi Arabia and specifically warns against non-essential travel to Abha Airport, all travel within 30km of the Yemen border, and non-essential travel in the 30–80km buffer zone beyond that.
The wider airspace picture and what governments are saying
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has kept its guidance in place despite the recently signed memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, warning that the regional security situation remains unpredictable and that hostilities could resume with little notice. British travellers are being told to monitor developments, avoid military and security sites, and keep travel plans under constant review. The FCDO has also flagged that Iran has previously targeted civilian infrastructure across the region — airports, ports, hotels and energy facilities among them — which is part of why so many carriers remain cautious even where fighting has quietened. The United States maintains a Level 3 "reconsider travel" advisory for Saudi Arabia, with some areas elevated to Level 4, citing missile and drone attacks alongside the risk of falling debris, and it separately warns of possible exit bans tied to social media activity. Australia updated its own Gulf guidance recently too, advising travellers to reconsider journeys to the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, and urging a high degree of caution for Saudi Arabia and Oman.
How the numbers actually look on the ground
For all the caution in the headlines, UAE airports themselves have largely kept operating. Recent tracking data showed Dubai International absorbing the highest volume of disruption in the country, with over 200 delays and around 15 cancellations recorded in a single day, while Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah saw comparatively lighter impact. Etihad logged the largest number of delayed flights of any single carrier, with Emirates, flydubai, Air Arabia and SpiceJet also affected, and flydubai carrying the highest cancellation count among UAE-based airlines. Zoomed out across the wider region — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain included — the same day saw disruption numbers climb into the hundreds, with Qatar Airways absorbing the heaviest delays and Saudia the largest share of cancellations. Aviation analysts point out that this kind of ripple effect is normal once one major hub falls behind schedule: a late arrival into Riyadh, Jeddah or Dubai can cascade into missed rotations, crew duty-time limits and knock-on delays well beyond the original disruption.
Who's flying, who's paused, and who's expanding
Despite the caution from long-haul international carriers, the UAE's own airlines have used the moment to push growth rather than retreat. Emirates recently completed a landmark refurbishment programme covering 100 aircraft — reportedly the largest retrofit exercise undertaken by any airline globally — and continues operating more than 1,300 weekly flights to 137 destinations, describing its current operations as reduced but resilient. flydubai has gone further, resuming and expanding into Syria with a new daily nonstop service to Aleppo, alongside a first-ever flight to Bangkok launched earlier this month. Air Arabia has been similarly aggressive from its three UAE hubs — Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah — inaugurating a new nonstop link between Sharjah and Rome Fiumicino, plus a new double-daily nonstop service connecting Sharjah with London Gatwick. On the Philippines route, Cebu Pacific has restored its Manila–Dubai service, now running four times weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Set against that expansion is a long list of foreign carriers still sitting out the Gulf market. KLM has cancelled Amsterdam–Dubai flights into late August and continues avoiding Iranian, Iraqi and Israeli airspace. Lufthansa and Swiss have paused Dubai flights, while the wider Lufthansa Group — including Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines — has extended suspensions to Abu Dhabi, Amman, Beirut, Riyadh, Dammam, Muscat and even Tehran well into the autumn. Air Canada has pushed its Tel Aviv and Dubai suspension out to September, and Singapore Airlines' newly extended pause covers Dubai through late October. Cathay Pacific, by contrast, is planning to bring back Dubai and Riyadh services from September 1, while Turkish Airlines has already doubled its Dubai frequency back up to 14 weekly flights.
Practical advice if you're travelling this week
With Dubai International expecting heavier-than-usual passenger volumes through the summer peak, the standard advice from airlines has been consistent: check in online where possible, confirm baggage allowances in advance, and arrive at the airport at least four hours before departure. Anyone with a connecting itinerary should double-check every leg individually, since a single cancelled rotation upstream can quietly invalidate the rest of a booking. Keeping contact details current with your airline is also worth doing now rather than at the gate — most carriers are pushing rebooking notifications out by phone, email, SMS or WhatsApp rather than posting them on departure boards. And because route suspensions and extensions are being revised on a rolling basis — sometimes adding a week at a time, as British Airways just did — the safest habit for the coming weeks is to check your specific flight number directly with the airline within 24 hours of departure, rather than relying on a general sense of how the region is doing.
The bottom line: airports across the UAE remain open and, for the most part, running close to normal, even as the list of airlines still sitting out the region continues to stretch into autumn. Whether you're flying out today or booking for next month, the safest assumption is that your itinerary could still move — so build in the extra buffer, and keep checking.
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