British Airways has paused most of its flights to key Middle East hubs until at least June as Iranian strikes on the Gulf region continue to cause chaos for travellers.
All flights to Amman, Bahrain, Dubai and Tel Aviv are temporarily cancelled until May 31, while services to Doha are suspended until April 30 and will only return on a limited schedule until June.
Abu Dhabi flights remain cancelled until October as BA extends its reduced schedule across the region.
The airline industry is facing its most challenging period since the Covid pandemic after Israel and the US launched attacks on Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with strikes on its Gulf neighbours and Israel which shut down airspace in the region.
While airspace has now re-opened, the situation remains volatile, with Iran continuing to target key infrastructure linked to US allies across the Middle East.
This announcement comes after our previous report of BA's last announcement on March 10, in which they stated: "We’ve cancelled all flights to and from Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, and Tel Aviv until later this month and to and from Abu Dhabi until later this year."
UAE airspace was shut overnight after a drone attack on a fuel storage tank, causing fresh disruption and temporarily closing Dubai Airport as firefighters battled flames for several hours and the world’s busiest international airport was forced to suspend flights.
BA’s services to Riyadh and Jeddah are continuing to operate as planned and customers booked on any of the affected routes can change their flights until May 31.
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The UK Foreign Office is warning British citizens against all but essential travel to Bahrain , Kuwait , Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement, British Airways said: “Due to the continuing uncertainty of the situation in the Middle East and airspace instability, and to provide more clarity to our customers, we’ve extended the temporary reduction in our flying schedule in the region.
“We’re keeping the situation under constant review and are directly in touch with affected customers to offer them a range of options.
“Since the situation in the Middle East began, we’ve helped thousands of customers return home and operated eight relief flights from Muscat in Oman. We are also operating additional flights to and from Singapore (x4) and Bangkok (x3), and continue to review options to bring back more customers who have been disrupted.”
Information on the situation can be found on BA’s website HERE .
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