Dubai: UAE airlines announced the cancellation of some flights and the re-routing of others as multiple countries in the region closed their airspaces temporarily following Iran's missile and drone attack on Israel on Saturday (April 13).

As airspace began to reopen throughout Sunday (April 14), UAE airline schedules started to return to normal in the afternoon.

Emirates Airline sent an updated statement to ARN, Sunday at 3.22 p.m. "Emirates cancelled some flights and rerouted others due to temporary airspace closures in the region from late evening of 13 April until the morning of 14 April. With the re-opening of these airspaces, we are resuming our scheduled operations to/from Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq from the afternoon of 14 April.

"We are closely monitoring the situation in co-ordination with the relevant authorities. Safety is always our top priority. Customers can check their flight status on emirates.com for the latest information.”

Etihad Airways issued an updated statement to ARN on Sunday afternoon at 5.15 p.m. "Following the reopening of airspace in Israel and Jordan and other parts of the Middle East, Etihad Airways plans to operate scheduled passenger and cargo services between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Tel Aviv (TLV), Abu Dhabi and Amman (AMM) and Abu Dhabi and Beirut (BEY) on Monday 15 April.

"As services return to normal following disruption caused by the temporary closure of airspace across parts of the Middle East on Sunday 14 April, there may still be a risk of some knock-on disruption across Monday 15 April, and customers are urged to check the status of their flight on etihad.com before travel."

Earlier, a flydubai spokesperson, in a statement to ARN, said "Due to the temporary closure of a number of airspaces last night, some of our flights on Sunday 14 April to Iran, Iraq, Israel and Jordan have been cancelled. We continue to closely monitor the situation as the airspaces reopen and will make any amendments to our schedule accordingly.

"We are in direct contact with our passengers whose travel plans have been affected and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. Passengers are advised to check the status of their flights on flydubai.com for the latest information regarding their flights."

-B