The busiest international airport globally has been closed indefinitely following the United States of America and Republic of Israel attack of Iran on Saturday, Fenruary 28, 2026.
Dubai and its sister Al Maktoum International both suspended all operations to avoid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East as per Dubai Airport officials.
More than 280 flights canceled with other 250 delayed.
The airspace that handles more international passengers than any hub on the planet went dark this morning (Saturday) because Iranian ballistic missiles were flying through different skies of the region.
The airlines affected: Emirates grounded; Etihad grounded; Qatar Airways grounded; and all flights to and from Doha suspended after Qatari airspace closed.
Air India and every single flight to every destination in the entire Middle East also suspended indefinitely.
Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirate until at March 2, 2026.
Lufthansa and Air France to Tel Aviv and Beirut suspended. Wizz Air Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Amman suspended until March 7, 2026.
British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, Norwegian Air, LOT Polish, Scandinavian Airlines, Aegean, Iberia, Air Arabia, PIA, Saudia, Air Algerie have all been affected with grounding or rerouting.
This is not a regional disruption. This is the global aviation network breaking at one of its most critical nodes.
Dubai is not just an airport. It is the single largest connecting hub between Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Every flight from Mumbai to London, from Singapore to Frankfurt, from Nairobi to New York that routes through the Gulf is now either cancelled, delayed or burning extra fuel on thousand-mile detours around closed airspace.
IndiGo just suspended flights to Almaty, Baku, Tashkent, and Tbilisi until March 28 not March 2, 2026.
A month of Central Asian connectivity erased because Iranian missiles crossed the flight paths.
The cost is compounding by the hour and rerouting flights is burning more fuel with the conflict spiking fuel prices past the US100 dollars a barrel.
The same conflict that has closed the airspaces is threatening the strait that moves 21 million barrels a day from the sea.
Airlines are paying surge prices for fuel to fly longer routes to skirt the conflict zone that did not exist before the Saturday morning attack.
Every hour the airspace stays closed, the losses multiply across carriers already operating on thin margins.
Dubai’s economy runs on connectivity, tourism, trade, finance and logistics. All these are at standstill without prediction of end.
All of it depends on DXB being open. The UAE just absorbed an act of war on its sovereign territory with a civilian killed in Abu Dhabi from missile debris.