Hundreds of airline passengers across the Middle East have been left stranded or facing long delays after a fresh wave of schedule disruptions swept through key regional hubs. Data from regional aviation trackers on Thursday, February 12, 2026, showed at least 1,574 flights delayed and 21 cancelled across airports in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran and Jordan, affecting major carriers including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Saudia and EgyptAir. From Dubai and Doha to Riyadh, Jeddah, Cairo and Istanbul, the knock-on effects rippled through one of the world’s most important aviation corridors, upending travel plans at the height of the busy winter holiday and business travel season.
A Region on Edge as Skies Grow More Uncertain
The Middle East’s aviation network has long been built around powerful transfer hubs, particularly in the Gulf states, that connect Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. That concentration means the region is especially vulnerable when political tension or airspace restrictions suddenly tighten. In late January 2026, a new spike in tension between the United States and Iran prompted a series of precautionary moves by European carriers, including suspensions of flights to Dubai and other Gulf destinations, as well as diversions to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace.
Those decisions, while aimed at protecting safety, have helped create a more crowded and less flexible air corridor over alternative routes. Airlines that continue to operate in and out of the region now find themselves squeezed between congested skies, longer routings, operational bottlenecks on the ground and aircraft already flying near maximum utilization. The result, visible this week at major airports from Dubai to Jeddah, is a pattern of rolling delays and last minute cancellations that can leave passengers trapped in transit with few easy alternatives.
For travellers, the distinction between a direct security-related cancellation and a purely operational delay is academic. What matters is that the carefully choreographed schedules that power long haul networks are fraying. As one series of late inbound flights bumps into the next wave of departures, a single disruption can cascade across multiple flights, time zones and airlines.
Dubai, Doha and the Gulf Hubs Under Strain
Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest for international traffic, has once again found itself at the epicenter of the disruption. Emirates, which relies heavily on rapid aircraft turnarounds and tightly timed connections, has already been grappling with packed schedules and limited slack across its global network. Aviation industry outlets reported in recent months that Emirates aircraft were operating close to capacity in terms of daily hours in the air, leaving the airline with less margin to absorb unexpected delays without impacting onward connections.
This week’s figures suggest those vulnerabilities are being tested. Industry reports on recent operating days from Dubai, Jeddah and Riyadh highlighted dozens of delayed departures and several cancellations across Emirates, flydubai, Saudia and other carriers departing the Gulf’s main hubs. While only a small percentage of total movements, those disruptions are highly concentrated at peak times, precisely when transfer passengers are relying on short layovers to make intercontinental journeys.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport, home to Qatar Airways, has also seen disruptions, particularly on routes touching Iran and other parts of the region that have been intermittently impacted by airspace restrictions over the past year. Although many Qatar Airways services continue to operate normally, selective cancellations and retimings add more volatility to connections for passengers heading to or from secondary cities in Iran, the Levant and South Asia.
Cairo, Istanbul and the Wider Middle East Network
The impact is not limited to the Gulf. Cairo, one of Africa’s busiest gateways and the primary hub for EgyptAir, has seen its own wave of delays and a limited number of cancellations as regional traffic flows are disrupted. Egypt sits at a key junction between Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. When routings shift or aircraft are held longer than planned elsewhere in the network, the effects frequently propagate through Cairo’s tightly scheduled banks of arrivals and departures.
In Türkiye, Istanbul’s main airports have faced pressure as aircraft reroute around airspace deemed risky or temporarily restricted. Turkish carriers and foreign airlines alike have periodically adjusted routings to avoid parts of Iraq, Iran or the Eastern Mediterranean in response to changing advisories over the past two years. Each rerouting can add flying time, affect crew duty limits and push aircraft into narrower turnaround windows at crowded hubs, helping to explain why even flights that depart eventually can show up on boards as significantly delayed.
In Jordan, Kuwait and Iran, where airports handle a mix of regional and international traffic, the disruptions have been more uneven but still noticeable. Some carriers have managed to maintain mostly on time operations, while others, particularly those linking into Gulf or European networks, have reported periodic delays and schedule changes. Together, these scattered disruptions contribute to a feeling of uncertainty among travellers, especially those who must make onward connections to long haul flights.
Geopolitics, Airspace Restrictions and Operational Realities
The current wave of disruption comes against a backdrop of sustained geopolitical tension and sporadic conflict in and around the Middle East. In January 2026, several European airlines, including Air France and KLM, temporarily suspended flights to Dubai, Riyadh and other destinations, and said they were avoiding the airspace of Iran, Iraq, Israel and parts of the Gulf as a precaution. Those decisions followed strong rhetoric and military movements involving the United States and Iran, reigniting fears of possible strikes or incidents that could endanger civil aviation.
Airlines and aviation authorities have long treated the region’s airspace as a dynamic risk environment, adjusting routings in response to changes on the ground and in the skies. Over the past 18 months, passengers have witnessed a cycle in which services to cities such as Tehran, Baghdad and Basra were first suspended and then gradually restored as conditions on specific routes improved. Recent months have seen some of those routes normalise again, with carriers in the UAE and Qatar resuming services to several Iranian cities even as other corridors remain sensitive.
But even when flights are technically allowed to operate, airlines may choose to divert around certain airspace or restrict night operations into particular airports. Those choices, while often invisible to passengers until a delay appears on a departure board, can add significant complexity to scheduling. Longer routings mean higher fuel burn, more time in the air and a greater risk that aircraft or crew will run into regulatory duty time limits, necessitating last minute swaps or cancellations.
Human Consequences: Stranded Families and Fraying Nerves
For the hundreds of passengers who found themselves stranded this week in Dubai, Cairo, Istanbul, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha and other hubs, the human cost of these disruptions is immediate and personal. Families en route to holidays in Asia have been forced to sleep on terminal floors, business travellers have missed meetings, and migrant workers returning home on tightly budgeted tickets have faced uncertainty over when and how they will finally reach their destinations.
At Dubai International Airport, scenes of crowded gate areas and long queues at transfer desks have become more common on disruption days. Travellers report confusion over whether delayed flights will eventually depart or be cancelled altogether, with information sometimes trickling out in the form of rolling departure time updates on screens. At other hubs, including Jeddah and Cairo, the combination of language barriers, overburdened customer service desks and large numbers of transit passengers can leave some travellers struggling to understand their rights and options.
The emotional impact of such disruption should not be underestimated. In recent years, as the Middle East has contended with periodic airspace closures and conflict related risks, passengers have become increasingly anxious about the safety and reliability of routes through the region. Each new wave of cancellations and delays, even if driven primarily by operational rather than immediate security concerns, reinforces a perception that travel through these hubs is less predictable than it once was.
What Airlines Are Doing for Affected Passengers
Major carriers including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Saudia and EgyptAir emphasise that safety remains their overriding priority and that they are working to accommodate disrupted passengers as quickly as possible. Standard measures typically include complimentary hotel accommodation for those facing overnight delays, meal vouchers during extended waits and free rebooking on the next available flights. In some cases, especially when disruptions are clearly linked to security concerns or airspace closures outside the airline’s control, cash compensation may not be offered, but passengers should still expect basic care and assistance.
Travel experts note that in complex disruption scenarios such as those now unfolding in the Middle East, airlines are often limited by factors beyond their immediate control. When significant portions of a route network are affected, spare seats on alternative flights become scarce and rebooking options may involve lengthy detours through secondary hubs. For example, a passenger originally booked from Europe to South Asia via Dubai might be rerouted through Istanbul, Doha or even a non regional hub, adding hours or even a day to the journey.
Airlines have also been urging customers to monitor their flight status closely through official channels and to ensure that their contact details are up to date. This allows carriers to send notifications of schedule changes, gate moves or cancellations before passengers arrive at the airport. While not a cure for the broader disruption, timely communication can help travellers make more informed decisions about when to leave for the airport or whether to attempt to change their plans.
Passenger Rights and Practical Advice for Travellers
Passenger rights in the face of delays and cancellations depend heavily on the departure and arrival countries, the airline’s home jurisdiction and the specific cause of the disruption. In some cases, especially for flights originating in the European Union or operated by EU based carriers, travellers may be entitled to financial compensation for long delays or cancellations that are not caused by extraordinary circumstances such as security threats or airspace closures. In other regions, the protections are more limited, focusing primarily on care and assistance rather than cash payments.
Travel insurers and consumer advocates generally recommend that passengers keep detailed records when disruptions occur, including boarding passes, receipts for meals and accommodation, and any written communication from the airline. These documents can be important later when seeking reimbursement or filing an insurance claim. Policies that include extended travel disruption cover are more likely to provide compensation for additional accommodation costs, alternative transport or trip abandonment when a journey becomes impossible or unreasonable to continue.
Seasoned travellers through the Middle East hubs also stress the value of building extra buffer time into itineraries where possible. Tight connections of under two hours, once considered normal and often reliable in Dubai or Doha, now carry a higher risk of misconnection when regional tensions flare or flight schedules become crowded. Choosing slightly longer layovers, avoiding the last flight of the day on critical sectors and being prepared with essentials in carry on luggage can make an unexpected overnight delay less stressful.
Looking Ahead: A Test for the Middle East’s Aviation Model
The current wave of delays and cancellations is more than a short term inconvenience. It is a stress test for the aviation model that has helped transform cities like Dubai, Doha and Istanbul into global crossroads. That model depends on predictable airspace access, efficient ground operations and a high degree of passenger confidence in the reliability of hub and spoke networks. When any of those pillars wobbles, the entire structure becomes more fragile.
Regional governments and aviation regulators face the challenge of maintaining safety while minimising disruption. That means close coordination with international partners on airspace management, transparent communication with airlines over risk assessments and, where possible, investment in infrastructure that can ease congestion at airports that are already operating near capacity. For airlines, the task is to build greater resilience into their schedules, whether through additional spare aircraft, more flexible crew rostering or diversifying route structures to reduce over dependence on a small number of sensitive corridors.
For travellers, however, the immediate priority is navigating the reality of today’s disrupted landscape. As hundreds of passengers in Dubai, Cairo, Istanbul, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha and beyond have discovered this week, the skies over the Middle East remain open but far from tranquil. Until tensions ease and operational pressures subside, those planning journeys through the region would be wise to prepare for the possibility that their trip may not go quite according to plan.