Vietnamese traveller narrowly avoids being stranded as Dubai shuts

Le Nam, from Ho Chi Minh City, had just completed a five-day trip to Dubai with friends. On the morning of February 28, the group was transferred by Emirates to Dubai International Airport for flight EK392, scheduled to depart at 9.35 am local time.

“We arrived at around 7 am, nearly two hours early to have breakfast and shop,” Nam said, adding that the departure lounge was still bustling, with passengers dining and buying duty-free goods such as perfume, chocolate and dates.

The flight took off on schedule. About 30 minutes into the journey, after passengers connected to onboard wifi, news began circulating of missile attacks and rapidly rising tensions in the region.

“I felt anxious when I read about the attacks and worried the plane might have to turn back,” Nam said.

However, once the aircraft reached cruising altitude, there was no announcement of any route change. Despite growing concern among passengers checking updates on their phones, the flight continued as planned and later landed safely at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

“About an hour after I got home, I heard that Dubai airport had closed. If our flight had been delayed by just a few hours, we might have been stranded,” he said.

Amid intensifying hostilities, several Middle Eastern countries simultaneously shut their airspace, severely disrupting regional aviation.

According to data from FlightRadar24 and aviation analytics firm Cirium, more than 1,800 flights to and from the Middle East were cancelled within 24 hours, with nearly 23 per cent of scheduled arrivals disrupted.

Major transit hubs including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, key connectors between Europe, Asia and Africa, were effectively paralysed, with numerous aircraft forced to divert or turn back mid-flight.