British Airways suspends flights to Dubai
British Airways has suspended flights to Dubai in the wake of US airstrikes on Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The UK's flag carrier cancelled its two scheduled flights to Dubai and Doha, the capital of Qatar, that were set to depart from Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon, with BA saying no services will operate to or from the Gulf states for the day.
A spokesman for BA said safety teams will monitor the situation over the next 24 hours and decide whether the flights – which had already been diverting far to the south of the conflict zone – can resume on Monday.
The spokesman added: 'As a result of recent events, we have adjusted our flight schedule to ensure the safety of our customers and crew, which is always our top priority.
'We are contacting our customers to advise them of their options while we work through this developing situation.'
British Airways said all customers travelling to either Doha or Qatar from Heathrow Airport between Sunday and Tuesday will be given the option to rebook on to a later flight up to and including July 6, without charge.
Airlines have already been avoiding vast swathes of the Middle East since the war between Israel and Iran broke out on June 13, with airspace over much of the surrounding countries largely empty, according to data from Flightradar24.
Russian skies also remain closed to Western carriers, leaving a narrow strip of open airspace that requires jets headed for north east Asia to fly over Turkey, the Caspian and central Asia.
A British Airways flight to London from Chennai in India turned back after news of the US assault emerged, before later refuelling and safely completing the trip.
Major US airlines including Delta Air Lines and United Airlines suspended flights to Israel last week before separately cancelling flights to Dubai and Doha on Thursday.
Dubai is a popular destination for expats and holidaymakers. The city's Dubai International Airport is currently the busiest airport in the world, with more than 90m passengers travelling through it each year.
Dubai also hosts millions of international tourists each year, and is home to more than 240,000 British expats, according to figures form Expat Insider.
A further 20,000 British expats currently live in Qatar's capital city, Doha, which typically welcomes over 5m visitors each year.
British Airways' flights from London Heathrow to Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh are running as usual, according to information from Heathrow Airport.
Emirates flights to Dubai and Qatar Airways flights to Doha are also running as scheduled, according to Heathrow.
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