Dubai: A large number of Europe-bound flights via UAE airports were cancelled on Thursday as volcanic ash from Iceland swept across northern Europe, closing airspace above Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and other countries.
List of UAE flights affected today
Traffic from across the globe en route to the United Kingdom ground to a halt, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
In pictures: Volcano erupts in Iceland
UAE airports saw crowds of transit passengers before they were booked into hotels for the night.
Etihad Airways and Emirates cancelled all flights to the UK after Britain closed its airports to avoid accidents caused by ash being sucked into aircraft engines.
Dubai Airports confirmed in a statement that there were no flights to the UK yesterday.
Major European hubs faced severe disruptions of air traffic after flights were grounded in Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Scandinavia.
UK airports have not said when they would resume operations, and British Airways announced its flights would remain grounded until at least this morning.
Flights affected from the UAE include Etihad service to Manchester and Heathrow from Abu Dhabi, and Emirates flights to Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham and Glasgow from Dubai. Flights by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were also cancelled.
Gulf Air, Bahrain's national airline, also cancelled its flight to London, with no indication of when it would resume.
— With inputs fromHabib Toumi, BahrainBureau Chief, and AFP
