UK will charter flights from Oman to evacuate Britons from region amid Iran strikes

Original article by Jessica Elgot and Gwyn Topham

The UK government will charter a flight from Oman in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable British nationals in the region amid continued strikes by Iran, the foreign secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said the closure of the airspace and the ongoing threat of strikes from Iran, retaliating for US-Israeli attacks, meant the situation was “fast-moving”.

Most scheduled services to and from the Gulf remain cancelled until Thursday, although Virgin Atlantic was planning to operate its overnight service from Heathrow to Dubai on Tuesday night, after a partial reopening of UAE airspace.

British Airways will also separately operate a flight out of Oman in the early hours of Thursday, to bring home some of its own customers stranded in the Middle East.

The time of the government charter flight is yet to be confirmed, but it would take off from Muscat “in the coming days”, Cooper said, adding that the government was working on increasing the capacity of flights able to depart from Oman.

She said 130,000 British nationals had registered their presence with the Foreign Office, allowing them to receive updates as the situation unfolds.

Speaking in the Commons, Cooper said airspace was still closed but that many British nationals stranded in countries in the Gulf, including the UAE, were receiving assistance from the local governments.

“I am in close contact with my counterparts across the region, speaking again yesterday with the UAE on the excellent support that they are providing and some of the departures that they are now securing as this becomes viable,” she said.

Cooper said that the government was “working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals”, and that a charter flight would fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals.

She said Britons in Oman would have to wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office (FCDO). “This is a very fast-moving situation. We have unprecedented numbers of British nationals in the region, and I will continue to update members and affected British nationals as the situation evolves,” she said.

No 10 said the FCDO had taken 2,700 calls from British nationals, half in the UAE. Citizens have registered to be kept informed from Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar and UAE.

BA does not normally operate direct flights from Muscat, but its holiday business sells packages to Oman, with passengers flying via Doha on a partner airline. Some BA customers were also diverted to Oman as airspace closed on Saturday.

A spokesperson said: “We currently remain unable to operate flights from destinations including Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Amman, and Tel Aviv. We’re continuing to do everything we can to support customers and colleagues in the region and are in regular contact with them.”

The airline is not advising those in the UAE to travel to Muscat, which is about 300 miles (480km) by road. But it said BA customers who were now in Oman should call a dedicated phone line if they wished to join the flight for London, departing at 2.30am local time on 5 March. The airline said there would also be scheduled flights on 6 and 7 March.

Downing Street said the government remained in touch with commercial airlines, and contingency plans were being worked on.

Large areas of airspace over the wider region remain closed since the conflict started, halting most scheduled flights to and from the Gulf. However, the UAE has partly opened its airspace for limited, emergency repatriation and cargo flights, including a first Etihad Airways flight carrying stranded British nationals back to Heathrow on Monday.

Virgin Atlantic said it expected to start bringing full planes of customers back on Wednesday, should its Heathrow overnight flight land successfully in Dubai. A spokesperson said: “Our services between London Heathrow and Dubai and Riyadh on Tuesday 3 March plan to operate as scheduled. The safety and security of our customers and people is always our top priority, and our operation is subject to ongoing assessments.”

International airports in the region have been targets of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, including Dubai’s international airport. Three leading airlines that operate at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha airports – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways – typically have about 90,000 passengers a day passing through those hubs.

Qatari airspace remains entirely closed, with no flights of any sort taking off or landing at Doha airport.

On Tuesday, the UAE government said its air defences had dealt with 186 missiles launched toward the country since the start of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

Israeli and US warplanes launched a fresh wave of strikes overnight across Iran, killing 787 people, according to the Red Crescent.