Western Airlines Are Drifting Back to Dubai, Just Not Together

British Airways resumed its daily Heathrow to Dubai service on November 3, according to Gulf News’ running list of UAE flight disruptions. The restart is a visible sign of recovery at one of the world’s busiest international hubs, although the same update makes clear that the picture across the region is still uneven. Regional tensions continue to cause cancellations and delays at Dubai’s two airports as well as in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, and Gulf News points out that not every cancellation on its list is linked to the conflict.

Other European carriers are further out. The report lists Lufthansa, SWISS and Eurowings as returning on November 25, while Austrian Airlines is pencilled in for December 12. If you booked one of those airlines for a Gulf trip, or for a connection through the UAE later this month, your flight may still be off the schedule. It is worth checking whether your airline has rebooked you onto another carrier or offered a refund before you assume anything is operating as planned.

Within the Gulf itself, a number of routes remain suspended. Etihad has cancelled all Abu Dhabi flights to Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah through Thursday, November 5, citing regional disruption, and Emirates has pulled its Dubai to Dammam and Dubai to Riyadh services along with some Jeddah flights. Air Arabia has cancelled a long list of routes from Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. In its snapshot of Dubai International, Gulf News counted 11 cancelled arrivals and 11 cancelled departures, plus a few dozen delays.

For anyone touching the UAE this week, the practical advice is to treat every schedule as provisional. Check your airline’s own flight-status page on the day of travel rather than relying only on a booking confirmation, and build in longer connection times than usual. The return dates reported here come from a live list that Gulf News updates as airlines change their plans, so they could shift again before the first Lufthansa Group flights come back.

Sources: Gulf News, Dubai Standard