A wave of United States and Israeli strikes on Iran, and retaliation by Tehran on targets across the region have forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to shut down, with reverberations across the globe.
At least eight states declared their airspace closed as the conflict erupted Saturday, including Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Syria also announced it had closed part of its airspace in the south along its border with Israel for 12 hours.
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The closures came after the US and Israel carried out attacks across Iran that US President Donald Trump pledged would raze Iran’s missile industry and destroy its navy. Iran, which had been engaged in negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme right up until the attack, pledged a harsh response and soon began waging retaliatory strikes in Israel, as well as several Gulf Arab states that host US military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain.
“All American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target,” a senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera. “There are no red lines after this aggression, and everything is possible.”
The Middle East has become an important route for flights between Europe and Asia, as Russian and Ukrainian airspace is closed to most airlines due to the war there.
As countries in the region closed their airspace, aircraft were forced to divert around Larnaca, Jeddah, Cairo and Riyadh.
UAE carriers Emirates and flydubai temporarily halted operations, while Etihad suspended all departures from Abu Dhabi until 10:00 GMT on Sunday.
Qatar Airways and Kuwait Airways temporarily suspended flights, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled flights to several Middle Eastern destinations.
Oman Air said it had suspended all flights to Baghdad due to the regional developments.
Kuwait’s aviation authority said it was halting all flights to Iran until further notice, according to the state news agency.
Russia’s Ministry of Transport said Russian air carriers had suspended flights to Iran and Israel.
Among other airlines announcing suspensions to destinations in the region were Aegean Airlines, Air Algerie, Air France, Air India, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Indigo, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Norwegian, Pakistan International Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Wizz Air.
Overall, about 24 percent of flights to the Middle East were cancelled on Saturday, according to aviation monitor Cirium.
Airlines cancelled about half of their flights to Qatar and Israel and about 28 percent of their flights to Kuwait.
“Passengers and airlines can expect airspace to be shut for quite some time in the region,” said Eric Schouten, head of aviation security advisory Dyami. “The impact on regional aviation is immediate and highly fluid.”
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Doha, said the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran and Iran’s response, affecting numerous Gulf states, have created two “parallel” conflicts, further deepening instability.
“This could make the whole crisis very intertwined and very complicated in a way that this region has never witnessed,” said Hashem.
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