Nearly 14,000 canceled flights: Middle East travel chaos in 5 charts
(CNN) — Hundreds of thousands of travelers are stranded in the Middle East after the cancellation of thousands of flights as war rages across the region.
Nearly 14,000 flights scheduled to depart from large airports in 10 countries have been canceled since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, data from Flightradar24 shows.
Flight data paints a stark picture of empty flight paths across the normally busy skies. Several Persian Gulf airports and airlines have completely suspended normal operations. As of March 6, 10 countries had totally or partially closed their airspace at some point since the strikes, according to Flightradar24.
Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates — one of the world’s busiest flight hubs connecting 291 destinations — has dropped 85% of its scheduled flights since February 28. In February alone, the airport handled 4.9 million seats, according to the Official Aviation Guide, a reference for air travel data.
Flights have been canceled at high rates at other airports in the region, including around 90% of flights from Sharjah, an emirate bordering Dubai, along with 94% from Doha, Qatar.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty in the region, some airports began resuming flights on Wednesday, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and King Khalid International near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
More than 300,000 British citizens live in or are in transit across the Gulf countries, according to the British foreign secretary. And on Wednesday the US State Department said that over 17,500 American citizens had returned to the United States from the Middle East since February 28.
The-CNN-Wire
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