UAE Flight Cancellations Persist as Saudi Route Suspensions Drag On

What is happening at UAE airports

Flying out of the UAE in late October 2026 means dealing with two problems at the same time. The first is a regional security crisis that has broken up the Gulf's busiest short-haul routes. The second is a run of labour strikes across Europe at the far end of many long-haul itineraries. The airports themselves are still working. What has failed is the network of routes around them, and that changes what passengers need to watch.

On October 28, disruption was still hitting UAE services to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India and other destinations, and several arrivals into Abu Dhabi were running late.1 The next day's coverage told the same story: delayed arrivals at Zayed International, all Etihad flights between Abu Dhabi and both Riyadh and Dammam cancelled, and Emirates cancellations on its Kuwait, Peshawar and Sialkot routes.6 The disruption also reaches well past Saudi Arabia. Air Arabia has cut services out of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi to Kuwait, Egypt, Bangladesh and cities in Europe and Asia.4

How the crisis began

The Saudi disruption traces back to attacks on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport in early October. The Houthis claimed responsibility for those attacks and for others.30 The damage to operations was close to total. Cirium data showed that on October 11, 353 of the 354 departures scheduled from King Khalid did not fly. Jeddah was hit less hard but still lost about 26 per cent of its scheduled departures that day.30

UAE carriers reacted at once and then kept extending their cuts. By October 12, Etihad had cancelled every Abu Dhabi–Riyadh flight through October 19, and flydubai had grounded its Riyadh, Dammam and Abha services.23 King Khalid reopened on October 25 after being shut for two weeks, but many of its scheduled departures were still cancelled.2 Etihad has now pushed its cancellations on the Riyadh and Dammam routes, and on some Jeddah flights, out to November 5.321 The airline has also warned that more changes could follow.9

Where the reporting disagrees

The sources do not all match, and the gaps matter to anyone holding a ticket.

The first gap concerns Emirates' resumption dates. One account says Emirates, like flydubai, had suspended several Saudi services until October 29.21 Another gives staggered dates instead: Dubai–Jeddah flights back from October 30, and Riyadh and Dammam services expected to return on November 8.9 For flydubai, the picture is clearer. It plans to run two daily Riyadh rotations from October 30.21 The likeliest explanation is that the plans for different routes and different dates are being reported in a shortened form. Anyone holding an Emirates ticket to Riyadh should not read "until October 29" to mean flights resume on October 30.

The second gap is more practical. Several outlets have found that some Emirates flights show as cancelled on Dubai International's arrivals board while the airline's own status page lists them as scheduled or operating.124 In other words, one airport can give two answers about the same flight. The common advice is to treat the operating airline as the authority, not the terminal screen.24

The third gap is about how bad things really are. The daily lists of cancelled flight numbers make the situation look severe. A snapshot from Flightradar24 on the afternoon of October 27 tells a calmer story. It showed DXB arrivals with an average delay of five minutes, about 7 per cent of flights delayed, 3 per cent cancelled, and a "low" disruption rating.36 Both pictures are accurate. Most of the hub is running normally, while a handful of routes, mostly to Saudi Arabia, are failing almost completely. Some coverage also notes that not every delay listed in the daily round-ups is caused by the conflict. Technical and operational problems are part of the mix.1037

The wider security picture

The Saudi routes are the biggest problem, but not the only one. Flights by Iranian airlines into and out of the UAE are suspended until further notice. Dubai–Tel Aviv services have been disrupted since a security incident involving flydubai flight FZ1073 on September 30.22 Emirates' codeshare flights on flydubai's Tel Aviv services have been suspended since October 5.2 Europe's aviation safety regulator, EASA, has a regional airspace bulletin in force until November 16.3

Foreign airlines are also staying out of Saudi Arabia, often for longer than UAE carriers. Lufthansa Group has suspended Riyadh flights until November 18 and Dammam until November 30. Scoot has cancelled Singapore–Jeddah until December 2. Delta has moved its Atlanta–Riyadh launch back to March 2027.7 Air India and Air India Express have suspended Riyadh and Dammam flights until November 7.22 These dates suggest foreign airlines expect the Saudi disruption to last into the winter, not just a few more days.

The opposite is happening on routes to Dubai. Lufthansa, SWISS, Eurowings and Austrian Airlines are adding or restoring Dubai flights between late October and December, with Lufthansa Group carriers planning up to 36 weekly flights at peak.10 Seat capacity on departures from UAE airports has risen significantly ahead of winter, with Emirates and flydubai leading the growth.37 Our reading is that airlines are betting on the UAE as a safe hub, while pulling back from the wider region where the disruption is concentrated.

Strikes at the other end of the trip

For travellers connecting to Europe, the second risk is labour action. Italy has a national general strike on Friday, October 30. Air traffic controllers will stop work from 13:00 to 17:00, and ground handlers and security staff are walking out for 24 hours.14 easyJet has cancelled more than 56 flights to and from Italy that day, and Ryanair has confirmed cancellations and is moving flights outside the strike window.1420 Spain has a rail strike the day before, on October 29. That matters for travellers who planned to reach or leave Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia airports by train.20

The Italian walkout caps a month of strikes. An Italian air traffic control strike on September 30 led to 308 cancellations and 1,746 delays.12 Brussels Airport lost about 140 flights on October 9, when staff at the ground handler Alyzia joined a national protest. Brussels Airlines cancelled about 40 per cent of its schedule that day.1819 Some of the coverage reports an indefinite ground-handling strike in Barcelona that has been running since August and causing delays across Europe.11 That reporting comes mainly from one outlet with an alarmist style, so the figures are best taken as a sign of the trend rather than an exact count.1113

For a passenger starting in the UAE, the risks add up. A flight to Milan or Rome that leaves Dubai on time can still land in the middle of a strike. Rebooking around a cancellation in the Gulf can push a trip into one of these strike dates. Commentary on the strikes also points out that cancellations and rebookings are where checked bags most often get separated from their owners.12

Security wait times are the smaller worry

Despite all this, getting through UAE airports is not the main problem. Dubai Airports reports that in the first half of 2026, 99.34 per cent of passengers cleared security within five minutes, and nearly 99 per cent cleared departure passport control within ten minutes.33 DXB handled 31.5 million passengers over the same period.31 Abu Dhabi's biometric Smart Travel system has cut identity and document checks from 25 seconds to seven.33

These headline figures deserve some caution. One industry analysis notes that the speed of a biometric check is not the same as the total time a passenger spends queueing, and that the published numbers do not show how much of the improvement comes from biometrics alone.33 A separate review makes the same point: a five-second Smart Gate check is not a five-second trip from aircraft to exit.35 A third-party tracker estimated DXB security waits at around 22 minutes and recommended arriving up to 150 minutes before an international departure.32 That figure is based on historical patterns, not live measurements, but it is a reminder that peak times can be well above the official averages.

What travellers should do

The advice across the coverage is consistent:

• Check your flight on the operating airline's own website or app before leaving for the airport, not on the airport board.124
• Check every leg of a connecting journey, not just the first flight.9
• Raise any problem first with the airline or travel agent. Dubai's Civil Aviation Authority advises checking your ticket's refund and rebooking terms before you travel.22

Compensation depends on what caused the disruption. For delays tied to security and the conflict, EU261 compensation is generally unlikely, although airlines should still provide care and assistance.39 Strikes by an airline's own staff are treated differently. Coverage of easyJet's Italian cabin-crew strike says that kind of walkout does not count as an extraordinary circumstance under EU rules.17

Our conclusion: UAE airports themselves are coping well with growing traffic, but the routes into Saudi Arabia and the connections into strike-hit Europe are where trips are breaking down. For most of this winter, the best protection is to check your flight with the airline directly and not rely on a single source.