Factbox: Governments weigh repatriations as conflict grounds Middle East flights

TUI AG

04/03/2026 10:37

Updates with latest information throughout.

March 4 (Reuters) - Commercial flights across parts of the Middle East have been grounded due to the escalating conflict after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, stranding foreign nationals and prompting governments to consider repatriation.

Below is what governments and officials have said about repatriation plans, in alphabetical order:

AUSTRALIA

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was in discussions with airlines to help Australians stranded in the Middle East, but that evacuations would be difficult while much of the region's airspace remains closed.

She said about 115,000 Australians were in the region and the most viable option would be to get people home when commercial airlines resume services.

Wong declined to say whether the government was planning repatriation flights. "Airspace is not open. So whether or not it is an Australian flight or a commercial flight, the flights are not able to occur," she said.

AUSTRIA

Austria’s foreign ministry said it had assisted 117 vulnerable citizens to leave the UAE and Israel via neighbouring states and was planning a first charter flight from Muscat on Wednesday for 170 people, while warning that land departures would be undertaken at travellers’ own risk.

BELGIUM

Belgium said on Tuesday it would deploy military aircraft to the Middle East to repatriate Belgian civilians.

BULGARIA

Bulgaria’s foreign minister said evacuation flights for citizens stranded in Oman and the UAE would begin on Wednesday, with about 300 people on the first flight from Oman, according to NOVA TV.

FRANCE

The French foreign minister said several repatriation flights for French nationals, around 400,000 of whom are in the region, were planned for Wednesday.

France said it had deployed consular teams at Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan to facilitate land exits so people can fly onward, and has put in place a similar mechanism in the UAE at borders with Oman and Saudi Arabia, where airspace has remained open.

GERMANY

Berlin is planning to charter two Lufthansa flights, one from Riyadh and one from Muscat, to bring home particularly vulnerable citizens such as children, pregnant women and people with disabilities.

Tour operator TUI  TUI1n.DE said it was working to return thousands of cruise passengers, with initial groups heading home on Gulf carriers including Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.

GREECE

Greece said an Aegean flight carrying Greek nationals from Oman, requested by the foreign ministry, would land in Athens on Wednesday afternoon. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had a plan to repatriate thousands of its nationals stranded in the Middle East.

HUNGARY

Hungary’s foreign minister said repatriation flights from Amman and Sharm el-Sheikh would operate on Wednesday and Thursday, with each aircraft carrying up to 90 people.

ITALY

A first charter flight carrying 127 Italian citizens stranded in Oman, or moved there from Dubai, landed in Rome's Fiumicino airport late on Monday, March 2, according to a Reuters video report.

Passengers arriving in Rome credited the Italian embassy with helping them return. One passenger said the flight cost about 1,500 euros ($1,741).

PHILIPPINES

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged Filipinos in Israel and other affected countries to move to safety, saying the government would arrange repatriation flights once it was secure to do so.

More than 2.4 million Filipinos live and work in the Middle East, including 31,000 in Israel and 800 in Iran, and more than 1,000 migrant workers have requested repatriation, Marcos said.

ROMANIA

Romania’s foreign ministry said more than 300 citizens were flown home from Cairo on Monday after travelling overland from Israel. It has received more than 3,000 repatriation requests and has around 16,000 nationals registered in the region.

SERBIA

An Air Serbia flight from Sharm el-Sheikh landed in Belgrade early on Wednesday, carrying 67 passengers, all evacuated from Israel.

SLOVENIA

Slovenia organised four buses on Tuesday, escorted by police, to take Slovenian citizens and families with children from Dubai to Muscat airport in Oman, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

The first flight for Slovenia was organised on Tuesday evening, with two more flights scheduled for Wednesday late afternoon and evening.

SPAIN

Spain has begun evacuating its citizens from the Middle East, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday. More than 175 Spaniards arrived on Tuesday evening on a flight from Abu Dhabi and further flights were expected from the UAE via Istanbul, he said.

Spain was also reinforcing its embassies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain to provide support and facilitate further repatriations, Albares added.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The UAE civil aviation authority will begin operating "special flights" across the country's airports to help some of the tens of thousands of passengers stranded in the region leave, state news agency WAM reported.

UNITED KINGDOM

British chartered flights will leave Oman on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, prioritizing vulnerable UK nationals who want to leave the region, the British Foreign Office said, after some 130,000 citizens registered their presence in the region.

LIMITED OR NO GOVERNMENT EVACUATIONS ANNOUNCED

The Dutch government has no immediate repatriation plans, as a KLM flight from Oman landed at Amsterdam Schiphol airport early on Wednesday carrying 93 Dutch passengers and several people from Belgium and Luxembourg.

Switzerland said it would not organize evacuations for the 4,400 travellers and 35,000 residents in the region.

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries immediately using commercial options, further advising travellers to register with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.

($1 = 0.8615 euros)

(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes and Mirko Miorelli in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham, Sharon Singleton and Milla Nissi-Prussak)

((Dimitri.Rhodes@thomsonreuters.com))