Stranded passengers wait at Tribhuvan International Airport after all evening flights to Sharjah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi, and Dammam were cancelled in Kathmandu, Nepal on February 28, 2026.
PARIS, March 1 — Flights across the Middle East were cancelled Saturday as several countries closed their airspace after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all announced at least partial closures of their skies in the hours after smoke began rising over Tehran and Iran began retaliatory attacks in the region.
Iranian missiles hit capital cities around the wealthy Gulf region, killing at least one, as witnesses reported seeing warplanes and projectiles streaking through the skies.
Carriers including Air France, Air India, Turkish Airlines, Norwegian, Air Algerie and Lufthansa announced widespread cancellations.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, of around 4,218 flights scheduled to land in Middle Eastern countries on Saturday, 966 (22.9 per cent) were cancelled, with the figure rising above 1,800 if also including outbound flights.
For Sunday, 716 flights out of 4,329 scheduled to the Middle East have been cancelled, Cirium said.
Flight tracking website FlightAware meanwhile said more than 19,000 flights had been delayed globally and more than 2,600 were cancelled as of 0230 GMT Sunday.
