Qatar’s decision to close its airspace in response to Iranian missile attacks has sparked global travel chaos – with influencers complaining of being left stranded at airports and on planes.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport shut for eight hours from yesterday evening, prompting airlines to rush to cancel their flights. It reopened at 1.20am local time, but with international routes now interrupted the disruption will take time to resolve.
The barrage of Iranian missiles fired at Al Udeid US military base in Doha in response to American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend was the latest escalation of tension in the already volatile region.
Those who have had their travel plans disrupted include Beth Hassan, a ‘running and lifestyle’ TikToker who shared a video earlier this morning to say her flight from Sydney to Doha had been called off.
‘I’m so stressed – there’s been no information given,’ she said. ‘I’ve tried to contact the airline but can’t get through on the phone or email so don’t know what to do. I’m really stressed, somebody help!’
Make-up influencer Maddie Wilcox described waking up to hear that their plane from India to Qatar was being diverted with two hours to go before landing due to missiles being fired at its capital.
She described the experience as ‘scary’ and said the plane was heading to Mumbai instead.
Tens of thousands of passengers are now stranded across several airports across the Middle East – which happens to be one of the busiest regions for commercial aviation.
Qatar Airways posted on X: ‘Our focus at this time is to help our passengers return home or reach their onward journey safely and smoothly. We’ve deployed extra ground staff at Hamad International Airport to support you as we resume operations.’
Dozens of flights have been diverted to a variety of destinations including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai World Central, Jeddah Muscat, Medina and Riyadh.
Meanwhile, several planes taking off from Heathrow and West Midlands Airport u-turned in mid-air and returned home or were cancelled before departure.
One TikToker, ‘marmoves’, said she had been stuck on her plane for ‘three to four hours’ after it was diverted away from Doha to Turkey.
Meanwhile, ‘clodagh7’ said she had been unable to get on a flight out of Brisbane.
‘Apparently Doha airport is just chockablock, so I’m going back to Brisbane now,’ she said.
Several British influencers who are currently living in Dubai said they were leaving following the outbreak of war.
Harrison Sullivan wrote: ‘The war has kicked off, we have seen the bombs going into Qatar and I am out of here. I’m going straight to Europe where I will continue my hustle for this whole week.’
TylerTen10 added: ‘Currently stranded in Dubai thanks to Trump. Woke up to hearing all flights cancelled. I am absolutely gutted. I miss home now. Cheers Trump.’
Other social media users expressed their concerns about the impact of the conflict on their relatives in the Middle East.
TikToker uminehaax described how her family were ‘stuck’ in Qatar during the bombing.
She told followers: ‘Things just don’t seem to be getting better for me at the moment. You might have heard about the strikes that have happened between Iran and the US.
‘Well I moved to Qatar when I was about 12 and we’ve lived there for eight, nine years. My mum is still there…. This is incredibly scary, nothing like this has ever happened – Qatar has never been involved in any conflict like this on this scale.
‘My mum is absolutely distraught, she was sending us lots of videos of missiles flying over where we live.’
Airlines scrambled to cancel flights and reroute planes yesterday after news of the attacks on the Al Udeid US military base in Doha first emerged. Officials were told the attack in advance and it did not kill or injure anyone.
The escalating tensions are starting to affect airlines beyond the Middle East, where major flight routes have already been cut off since Israel began strikes on Iran on June 13.
Yesterday, Air India said it would suspend flights to and from eastern North America and Europe as those routes use what has become an increasingly narrow path between those destinations and the Indian subcontinent.
After briefly closing their airspace, Bahrain and Kuwait both reopened them. Dubai Airports said its operations had resumed after a brief suspension, though it warned of delays or cancellations on social media site X.
The conflict has already cut off major flight routes to typically resilient aviation hubs such as Dubai, with the world’s busiest international airport, and Qatar’s capital of Doha.
The usually busy airspace stretching from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean this morning resembled a ghost town, devoid of commercial air traffic due to the airspace closures and safety concerns.
Air India said yesterday it had stopped all operations to the Middle East, but also flights to North America’s east coast and Europe. This included diverting flights already in the air back to their takeoff site, and away from closed airspaces.
‘It’s terrifying,’ said Miret Padovani, a business owner who was stranded at Doha’s Hamad International Airport.
She was booked on a Qatar Airways flight to Thailand scheduled to leave late yesterday, but cancelled her trip and is now planning on returning home to Dubai early today.
‘Everything happened so quick. I actually heard from people in the first class lounge that the missiles were being sent this way before they were even in the news.’
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, about two dozen flights to Doha, mostly from Qatar Airways, were diverted yesterday, and about a handful of flights to Dubai were diverted due to the airspace closures.
Kuwait Airways yesterday suspended its flight departures from the country, while UAE’s Etihad Airways was rerouting flights today.
IAG’s Spanish airline Iberia scrapped a plan from earlier in the day to resume flights to Doha today after the latest airspace closures.
With Russian and Ukrainian airspace also closed to most airlines due to years of war, the Middle East has become a more important route for flights between Europe and Asia.
Amid missile and air strikes during the past 10 days, airlines have routed north via the Caspian Sea or south via Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Carriers have likely been avoiding Doha, Dubai and other airports in the region due to concerns that Iran or its proxies could target drone or missile attacks on US military bases in these countries, aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions said.
