Dubai International Airport and Burj Al Arab Hotel have been damaged in retaliatory strikes following US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Following Iranian strikes, both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International suspended all operations, leading to cancellations of over 280 flights.
Besides, 250 more were delayed as the airspace that handles more international passengers than any hub on the planet went dark this morning.
Airlines suspended flights across the Middle East, including to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Flight-tracking maps showed airspace over much of the region virtually empty.
Dubai’s landmark Burj Al Arab hotel also sustained damage during Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Gulf nations and the Middle East. According to the Emirate’s media office, four people were injured at the airport during Iranian strikes.
Dubai’s media office stated on X (former Twitter) that a concourse at Dubai International (DXB) sustained minor damage in an incident, which was quickly contained.
It was later also confirmed that a drone was intercepted, and debris caused a minor fire on the Burj Al Arab’s outer facade.
Abu Dhabi Airports also said in a post on X that an incident at Zayed International Airport in the UAE’s capital resulted in one fatality involving an Asian national and seven injuries. It later deleted the post.
One of the berths at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port also caught fire because of debris resulting from an aerial interception, the Dubai media office said in a separate statement.
Dubai is the single largest connecting hub between Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Every flight from Mumbai to London, from Singapore to Frankfurt, from Nairobi to New York that routes through the Gulf is now either cancelled, delayed, or burning extra fuel on thousand-mile detours around closed airspace.
Dubai’s economy runs on connectivity. Tourism, trade, finance and logistics depend on DXB being open. The UAE just absorbed an act of war on its territory, with a civilian killed in Abu Dhabi from missile debris. The country that built its entire economic model on being the safe, neutral, connected hub of the Middle East is now closed for business.
