First flights bringing Israelis back home from Dubai land at Ben Gurion Airport

The first flights operated to repatriate Israelis who were stranded in Dubai for more than a week landed on Monday at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

The two flights, operated by flydubai, flew home a total of 604 passengers, after “significant delays resulting from the operational complexity of operating flights under current conditions,” the Transportation Ministry said. In addition, a flight operated from Dubai flew 121 passengers via Athens back to Israel, the ministry said.

The repatriation flights are part of a plan led by the Transportation Ministry to fly home thousands of Israelis stranded in the United Arab Emirates, after efforts were paused over the weekend following the closure of airports in the Gulf country due to Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The ministry said it will organize additional flights from Dubai chartered by Emirati airlines and expects to end the repatriation operation in the coming days. The operation comes as Iran has been firing missiles and drones at Israel, the UAE and other countries in the region.

Israeli carrier Israir operated a third flight overnight to repatriate its customers stranded in Dubai since the start of the war with Iran. The flight carrying 170 passengers took off from Dubai last night and landed at Aqaba airport in Jordan.

Upon landing in Aqaba, Israir provided passengers with food and drink, and transportation to the border crossing in Jordan, where they assisted with visa requirements and extended opening hours at the border crossing.

After crossing to the Israeli side, passengers were transferred to bus shuttle services provided by the Israel Airports Authority and the Transportation Ministry, taking them to several central points across the country. Israir operated another flight on the route Monday with 150 passengers.

Over the weekend, Israir chartered two special flights with 310 Israeli customers that took off from Sharjah International Airport, located about 50 minutes from Dubai, and landed at the Aqaba airport. From there, passengers were transferred to the land border crossing in Jordan and crossed to the Israeli side to travel back home.

On Monday night, Israir said, it will operate the last repatriation flight chartered by a foreign aircraft from the UAE’s Al Ain International Airport to fly its customers stuck in and around Dubai to the Aqaba airport. The airline will assist passengers with transportation from the airport to the border crossing with Jordan.

Local rival Arkia said since Sunday it flew a total of 500 customers on repatriation flights chartered by foreign aircraft from airports around Dubai to Egypt’s Taba and Jordan’s Aqaba airports, and from there, passengers returned to Israel via land border crossings.

Overall, since Ben Gurion Airport was closed on February 28 with the outbreak of the Iran war, over 50 percent of Israelis who were abroad returned home, according to the Israel Airports Authority.

Since the partial reopening of Ben Gurion on Wednesday, about 24,000 Israelis returned home on 133 repatriation flights operated by Israeli airlines as of Sunday. Another 44 repatriation flights carrying an estimated 8,000 passengers are expected to land on Monday at Ben Gurion.

In addition, between February 28 and March 8, 22,800 stranded Israelis returned to the country via land border crossings with Egypt and Jordan. During the same period, 29,247 people left Israel via land border crossings.