Middle Eastern airports are crossroads of the world. Here's how the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran will sow chaos on air travel

By Claudia Assis

The Dubai International Airport in February 2021. Dubai and other airports in the region fashioned themselves into major international hubs over the years.

Middle Eastern airports such as United Arab Emirates' Dubai and Qatar's Doha fashioned themselves into the crossroads of the world in the last couple of decades. Both are closed following U.S. and Israel's attacks on Iran on Saturday, wreaking havoc in international air travel.

Dubai and Doha are among the largest international hubs for air travel, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group.

"Flights from these hubs go to all continents," he said. "It's going to be highly highly disruptive to international air travelers."

The U.S. and Israel's strikes on Saturday led to Tehran's strikes of its own, with President Donald Trump calling on Iranians to overthrow their government.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said Saturday the three major airlines operating out of the UAE and Qatar - Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad - connect about 90,000 transiting passengers a day, not including passengers destined for the Middle East.

Several airlines canceled flights to Middle Eastern airports due to safety concerns, including United Airlines (UAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) scratching their flights to Tel Aviv at least through the weekend, among other changes and cancellations.

Stephen Trent, an independent airline analyst who spent decades at major investment banks, noted that U.S. airlines already spent the last couple of years experiencing disruption in the region and already restricted their routes, which could minimize the current direct disruption.

Dubai's and Doha's airports were catapulted into major air-travel hubs starting in the 2000s as their own countries became global economic powerhouses. Dubai's Emirates, for instance, is one of only a select group of airlines flying Airbus' A380 jets, the largest commercial plane ever built, with room for more than 500 passengers.

Historically, Iran's Mehrabad airport in Tehran was emerging as a global hub connecting East and West in the 1970s, but that trajectory cut short by the Iranian Revolution, Harteveldt said. Over the years, Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi's airports took that mantle.

Depending on how long the conflict and airport closures last, cargo would also be affected, Harteveldt said.

Even with an end to the conflict, it will take time for airlines to right their schedules and resume normal operations, since their planes - and crews - were diverted to other airports and are scattered due to the closures, he said.

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-28-26 1450ET