UK launches charter flight booking portal for Britons in Dubai

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Dubai International Airport

The UK Government has opened a booking portal for British nationals in Dubai who wish to access UK government charter flights to leave the Middle East region. British nationals stranded in the UAE should register their interest here.

The most “vulnerable” will be prioritised for booking onto charter flights and the Foreign Office has said it will contact those who have registered their presence in the region.

Passengers should not make their way to Dubai Airport “unless you have received confirmation from us that you have a seat”, the UK government said in a statement across social channels.

On Saturday 7 March, the UK government announced it will run a commercial charter flight from Dubai, available for a charge.

More than 160,000 British nationals have registered their presence in the region with the UK Foreign Office, while nearly 27,000 have departed since 1 March, including from Dubai, following widespread airspace closures and flight cancellations triggered by the US–Israel conflict with Iran.

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Since Friday 6 March, at least 19 flights have left the UAE carrying more than 5,300 British nationals, with additional services operating in the following days, according to UK officials and Emirates.

Emirates has said it would continue to ramp up its operations to and from its hub in Dubai despite the airport being attacked on Saturday 7 March, and anticipates a return to 100% of its network "within the coming days". Signalling a return to commercial operations rather than repatriation flights, the carrier said it is prioritising links to the UK and India, selling tickets fort its flights between Dubai and eight British airports.

Emirates

With airspace open across Oman, Muscat Airport has become the de-facto centre for charter flights leaving the region, with one third of flights last week private or charter planes, data from Flightradar24 shows.

The UK government began operating flights out of the region last week from Muscat, Oman, with three charter flights returning to the UK: the first landing at Stansted airport on Friday, the second at Gatwick on Saturday and a third that was scheduled to leave on Sunday 8 March.

Airport authorities in Oman told charter plane operators on Friday, in an email seen by the FT, that flight movements would be “restricted to approved seasonal scheduled services only”, adding that the only additional flights that may be considered during this period are Embassy-sponsored repatriation flights, subject to prior approval through the applicable diplomatic channels and on the condition that commercial sale of seats is undertaken in connection with such operations.

British nationals in Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE should register their presence with the FCDO.

For more information, fcdo.gov.uk and for all the latest flight information, click here.