Drone Strike Shuts Dubai International Airport For Hours, Thousands Of Indian Passengers Affected
· Free Press Journal
Mumbai: Thousands of travelers were left stranded on Monday as Dubai International Airport (DXB) suspended all flight operations following a drone strike that ignited a fire near the facility. The incident caused cancellation of hundreds of flights to and from DXB while hundreds were diverted to Dubai World Centre airport, Abu Dhabi or Fujairah.
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Drone Hits Fuel Tank Near Runways
In the early hours of Monday, a drone targeted a fuel tank in the vicinity of the world’s busiest international hub. While the Dubai Civil Defence successfully contained the blaze with no reported injuries, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority enacted an immediate precautionary shutdown of all runways to assess further security risks.
The suspension marked the longest operational halt since the current regional war began on February 28. Though a limited resumption began after 10am local time, the ripple effects devastated the day’s flight boards. Emirates, one of the largest carriers in the Middle East, also cancelled a few flights while diverting the rest of them. It's flight EK-533 to Dubai returned mid-air to Cochin four hours after take-off.
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India, which provides the highest volume of international traffic to Dubai, saw immediate and widespread cancellations. Air India Group, including Air India and Air India Express, cancelled all the flights to Dubai scheduled on Monday. Air India had announced ad-hoc flights from Delhi while Air India Express had announced ad-hoc flights from Kochi. Akasa Air said that it will continue to keep the flights to Abu Dhabi, Doha and Kuwait suspended till March 19. IndiGo also added that the flights scheduled till March 17 will be affected.
To manage the backlog, several flights were diverted to Al Maktoum International (DWC) or Abu Dhabi International (AUH). However, passengers have been warned that ground transport between these cities remains difficult due to security-related road closures around Dubai’s Airport Road and the Al Garhoud Bridge.
Dubai government announced at 11.41am that flights were being gradually restored to selected destinations. However, the operations had not normalised till the end of the day. "Do not to proceed to DXB unless you have been contacted directly by your airline with a confirmed departure time, as schedules remain subject to change," the local authorities had stated.
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