March 4 (Reuters) – Commercial flights in parts of the Middle East have been grounded due to the escalating conflict following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, stranding foreign nationals and prompting governments to plan repatriations.
Below is what governments and officials have said about repatriation plans, in alphabetical order:
AUSTRIA
Austria’s foreign ministry said it had assisted 117 vulnerable citizens to leave the UAE and Israel via neighbouring states and was planning a first charter flight from Muscat on Wednesday for 170 people, while warning that land departures would be undertaken at travellers’ own risk.
BULGARIA
Three flights by GullivAir, Bulgaria Air and the State Aviation Operator are returning Bulgarian citizens from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman on Wednesday and Thursday, including a 326‑seat GullivAir flight from Dubai, a Bulgaria Air Boeing 737 rotation via Oman, and a 90‑seat government aircraft from Abu Dhabi.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The Czech government has so far organised three flights from Oman, Jordan and Egypt to evacuate 175 people stranded in the region, according to CTK news agency and government officials, and more are planned.
ESTONIA
Estonia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said it had organized a flight with 180 seats from Muscat for Thursday, and that this would be available to its citizens in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, at a cost of 400 euros per passenger.
FINLAND
Finland will organise a single repatriation flight for the roughly 3,000 Finnish citizens currently in the United Arab Emirates, the foreign ministry said. The flight will depart from Muscat, Oman, this weekend. Tickets will cost 2,300 euros per passenger, on top of any expenses for travelling to Muscat.
FRANCE
The French foreign minister said several repatriation flights for French nationals, around 400,000 of whom are in the region, were planned for Wednesday.
France said it had deployed consular teams at Israel’s borders with Egypt and Jordan to facilitate land exits so people can fly onward, and has put in place a similar mechanism in the UAE at borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia, where airspace has remained open.
GERMANY
Berlin is planning to charter two Lufthansa flights, one from Riyadh and one from Muscat, to bring home particularly vulnerable citizens such as children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.
Emirates Airline flights departed on Wednesday to Düsseldorf and Munich, with another flight to Frankfurt scheduled. Lufthansa is flying a plane to Muscat, Oman, at midday local time, which will bring stranded tourists to Germany. The plane is expected in Frankfurt on Thursday morning.
GREECE
Greece said an Aegean flight carrying Greek nationals from Oman, requested by the foreign ministry, would land in Athens on Wednesday afternoon. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had a plan to repatriate thousands of its nationals stranded in the Middle East.
HUNGARY
Hungary’s foreign minister said repatriation flights from Amman and Sharm el-Sheikh would operate on Wednesday and Thursday, with each aircraft carrying up to 90 people.
ITALY
Italy’s foreign ministry said about 2,500 Italians have returned from Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Muscat on commercial flights facilitated by the ministry, adding that more ministry‑supported departures from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, Riyadh, Malé and Colombo will follow in the coming days.
NETHERLANDS
The Dutch government on Wednesday said it would organise several repatriation flights with Dutch tour operators and airlines in the coming days. A first KLM flight for this purpose brought back around 85 Dutch citizens from Oman to Amsterdam on Wednesday morning.
POLAND
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday that a plane dispatched to pick up Poles requiring medical assistance is expected to land in Oman on the same day.
ROMANIA
Romania’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday airline FlyDubai has scheduled two flights to Bucharest on Wednesday and Thursday. It has received more than 3,000 repatriation requests and has around 16,000 nationals registered in the region.
SERBIA
An Air Serbia flight from Sharm el-Sheikh landed in Belgrade early on Wednesday, carrying 67 passengers, all evacuated from Israel.
SLOVAKIA
Two evacuation flights out of Jordan organised by Slovakia landed on Tuesday, carrying a total of 127 people, mostly Slovak nationals, the Slovak Foreign Ministry said. More flights are planned.
SLOVENIA
Slovenia organised four buses on Tuesday, escorted by police, to take Slovenian citizens and families with children from Dubai to Muscat airport in Oman, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The first flight for Slovenia was organised on Tuesday evening, with two more flights scheduled for Wednesday late afternoon and evening.
SPAIN
Spain has begun evacuating its citizens from the Middle East, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday. More than 175 Spaniards arrived on Tuesday evening on a flight from Abu Dhabi and further flights were expected from the UAE via Istanbul, he said.
Spain was also reinforcing its embassies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain to provide support and facilitate further repatriations, Albares added.
THAILAND
Thailand plans to evacuate its nationals from Iran by land to Turkey on March 7 and 10, while others stranded in Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Jordan are returning or will return once airspace reopens.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The UAE civil aviation authority will begin operating “special flights” across the country’s airports to help some of the tens of thousands of passengers stranded in the region leave, state news agency WAM reported.
UNITED KINGDOM
British chartered flights will leave Oman on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, prioritising vulnerable UK nationals who want to leave the region, the British Foreign Office said, after some 130,000 citizens registered their presence in the region.
LIMITED OR NO GOVERNMENT EVACUATIONS ANNOUNCED
Australia says it cannot evacuate citizens while regional airspace remains closed, and with about 115,000 Australians in the Middle East, the government is focusing on commercial flights once normal services resume.
Switzerland said it would not organise evacuations for the 4,400 travellers and 35,000 residents in the region.
The U.S. State Department urged Americans to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries immediately using commercial options.
($1 = 0.8615 euros)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes and Mirko Miorelli in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Sharon Singleton and Milla Nissi-Prussak)
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