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U.S.-Israeli Strikes Kill Khamenei, Ground 2,400+ Flights Across Gulf Airspace

U.S.-Israeli Strikes Kill Khamenei, Ground 2,400+ Flights Across Gulf Airspace
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U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered Iranian retaliation shut large swaths of Middle Eastern airspace over the weekend, forcing the cancellation of 2,400–3,400 flights in a single day and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers across major global hubs.pbs +2 Airlines warned disruption would stretch for days as governments weighed evacuation plans for their citizens.

The strikes began early Saturday, Feb. 28, in what Washington has called “Operation Epic Fury,” with President Donald Trump vowing that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue as long as necessary.pbs Iran launched missile and drone attacks at Israel and U.S.-aligned Gulf states in response, with explosions reported in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and at least one person killed and 11 injured at airports in the United Arab Emirates.cbsnews

How a New Gulf War Froze a Global Air Network

By Saturday night, airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar was effectively empty of civilian traffic, according to flight-tracking maps.pbs The closures rippled instantly through three of the world’s biggest connecting hubs — Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha — where carriers such as Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways together normally handle about 90,000 passengers a day.bbc

Flight trackers tallied between 1,600 and 3,400 cancellations across Middle East airports between Saturday and Sunday, with FlightAware citing “more than 2,400” cancellations on Sunday alone.cnbc +1 Qatar Airways said all flights to and from Doha were suspended “due to the closure of Qatari airspace,” while Emirates halted operations into and out of Dubai until at least Monday afternoon local time because of “multiple regional airspace closures.”cbsnews +1 Major European and U.S. carriers, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, United and Delta, axed services to Israel and the Gulf or rerouted flights around the conflict zone.pbs +1

Stranded Passengers, Rising Costs and Political Fallout

Scenes of overcrowded terminals and makeshift sleeping areas emerged from Dubai, Doha and other airports as travelers scrambled to rebook on jammed phone lines.cnbc +1 Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said passengers should expect “delays or cancellations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end.”cnbc Aviation experts warned that even once airspace starts to reopen, repositioning aircraft and crews will delay a return to normal schedules and could push up fares as airlines absorb longer routes and higher fuel burn.bbc +1

Governments moved to support citizens caught in the disruption. The UK Foreign Office said more than 76,000 British nationals had registered in affected Gulf states and began planning potential mass evacuations by land, sea or air if the conflict escalates.cbsnews +1 European leaders, the United Nations and other international bodies urged restraint, warning that a protracted air war risked transforming the Gulf — long marketed as a safe transit and business haven — into an active front line.pbs +1

The Bigger Picture

The shutdown of Gulf airspace underscored how tightly global mobility and commerce are bound to Middle Eastern stability: a few hours of bombing translated into thousands of grounded flights, stranded families on several continents and fresh uncertainty over trade routes and energy supplies. If hostilities and closures persist, airlines face higher costs and complex operational challenges, travelers face longer and less predictable journeys, and governments may be forced into large-scale evacuation efforts — turning what began as a targeted military campaign into a test of the resilience of the global transport system.