Are flights leaving Dubai today? Is the airport open now? - urgent latest update issued to travellers

Dubai Airport says 'most flights remain suspended' as thousands of passengers remain stranded amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The airport is open but only for those passengers who have received a confirmed departure time directly from their airline.

The airport says that if you have received a confirmed departure flight from your airline, you should also check which Terminal your flight is departing from. It adds: "Limited airport operations have resumed with a small number of flights operating from DXB and DWC.

"Schedules remain subject to change." The first Emirates flight from Dubai to Birmingham since Friday 27 February landed yesterday after 12pm (Wednesday 4 March), and the first departure flight to Dubai from Birmingham also operated, leaving the airport at 13:40pm.

The same two flights are scheduled to operate today (Thursday 5 March) at Birmingham Airport. Despite Emirates operating a limited number of repatriation services, it has said that all scheduled flights are cancelled until at least 11.59pm GST on Saturday March 7. 

This means that there are still scores of cancelled flights at Dubai Airport. Passengers are strongly advised to enquire with their airline, and receive confirmation from their airline, before heading to Dubai Airport.

Emirates’ limited operations come as fellow DXB-based airline flydubai confirmed that it has partially resumed operations from Terminals 2 and 3 of the airport. Elsewhere, the first Government rescue flight and British Airways commercial flight from Muscat is expected to land in the UK today.

Two more British Airways flights will take passengers from Muscat to London Heathrow on Friday and Saturday. Qatar Airways announced it would operate “a limited number of relief flights” to European cities on Thursday, but confirmed most flights would remain suspended due to the ongoing closure of Qatari airspace.

Services from Muscat would depart for London Heathrow as well as Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Another flight would depart from Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, to Frankfurt. The airline wrote on X: “Passengers are kindly requested not to proceed to the airport unless they have received an official notification from Qatar Airways for these flights".