Dubai flights scheduled at Birmingham Airport today as Emirates operates limited repatriation routes

In Emirates’ latest travel update, the airline announced that all scheduled flights are cancelled until at least 11.59pm GST on Saturday March 7. However, the airline is operating a limited number of repatriation services from Dubai International Airport. 

Passengers for these flights will be contacted directly. Travellers have been advised not to proceed to the airport unless they have been directly contacted by their airline with a confirmed departure time.

Emirates’ limited operations come as fellow DXB-based airline flydubai confirmed that it has partially resumed operations from Terminals 2 and 3 of the airport. Today, an Emirates flight from Dubai is due to land at Birmingham Airport after 12pm.

A departure flight from Birmingham Airport to Dubai is also scheduled at 13:40pm. This was the case yesterday (Wednesday 4 March) at the major West Midlands hub which saw the first flight from Dubai to Birmingham land since the conflict in the Middle East began on Saturday 28 February.

The Express and Star spoke to some of the passengers who were on the first repatriation flight back to Birmingham. Pamela Chamber, 36, said she had flown out from Birmingham Airport to Dubai on Thursday 26 February with her husband and had left her children. She was meant to come back on a flight on Tuesday 3 March but it was cancelled.

She said as she fought back tears: “I left my children just to go away for a few days and I can’t wait to go and get them now. So I am rushing out to go and get my kids."

When asked about the situation in Dubai, Mrs Chamber said: “It was a nightmare being there but it was safe. It was safe on the ground. 

"Sleeping and waking up to blasts from the interceptions, obviously it was a good thing, but at the same time any little bit of noise shakes us now, so there is the aftermath."

A man from Nottingham, whose 10-day holiday to Dubai with his partner had turned into 13-day stint due to a cancelled flight, said he was "lucky enough" to be on the first flight on Wednesday. He said "everyone was nervy for about two hours for the first part of flight until we got out of that airspace". 

Passengers for these repatriation flights will be notified directly by the airline. Passengers with earlier bookings will be treated as a priority on these limited flights.

The airline has stressed, however, that travellers should only proceed to the airport if they have been contacted directly. The situation remains dynamic and is assessed continuously. The airline states that it will develop its schedule accordingly.