Air Canada suspends flights to Israel and Dubai

CITYnews  halifax / By John Marchesan

Air Canada says it is cancelling flights to Israel and Dubai through the first few days of March due to the current military situation in the Middle East.

The airline says flights from Canada to Israel have been suspended until March 8 and to Dubai until March 3.

“We are monitoring the situation and will adjust our schedule accordingly,” Air Canada said while directing passengers to its website for further updates.

America and Israel’s attack on Iran disrupted flights across the Middle East and beyond Saturday as countries around the region closed their airspace and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the West to Asia halted operations.

Hundreds of thousands of travelers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace.

Dubai International Airport — the largest in the United Arab Emirates and one of the busiest in the world — said Saturday that four people were injured as the Emirates condemned what it called a “blatant attack involving Iranian ballistic missiles.”

Strikes were also reported at other commercial airports in the region, including Kuwait International.

The federal government is warning Canadians to avoid travelling to the Middle East due to the ongoing military situation, specificaly Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as non-essential travel to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Files from The Associated Press were used in this report

The tail wing on an Air Canada jetliner is shown in this undated photo. X/Air Canada