Air Travel via the Middle East: Key Changes for Businesses in Eastern Europe and Belarus

Due to the current situation affecting the airspace over the United Arab Emirates and neighboring countries, we are seeing significant changes to flight schedules, which may impact your business travel and logistics. UAE airports, including Dubai, are temporarily not operating, and at this time only Muscat Airport in Oman is operating. The timeline for resuming flights has not yet been determined, and while flights to popular destinations such as the Maldives, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka remain formally confirmed, the situation is dynamic and may change.

Airlines are offering various options to help mitigate the impact. Emirates is allowing free changes to the departure date within 10 days. Qatar Airways is offering up to two free flight changes with the option to move the date by 14 days, as well as refunds even for non-refundable fares. Etihad is allowing free ticket reissuance with the travel date moved to March 15. Gulf Air is offering up to two free changes and the option of an involuntary refund with no penalties. flydubai has suspended flights until March 3 (3:00 PM UAE time), offering a refund or free rebooking with a date change of up to 20 days.

If your tickets were issued through us, please contact your dedicated account manager. We are actively working to find alternative routes and will provide full support with rebooking or arranging a refund. If you purchased your tickets independently, we recommend checking your flight status regularly on the airline’s official website and closely monitoring notifications from the carrier. Do not wait for an official cancellation – consider routing options via Asian hubs, for example, flights operated by Chinese airlines, but keep in mind that seat availability on alternative flights is limited, so you will need to act quickly. Please note that refunds for canceled flights will be processed in stages after official confirmations are received from the airlines.