After days of being stranded in the Gulf region, the first German tourists have begun making their way home. A flight from Dubai landed in Frankfurt am Main on Tuesday afternoon, while another departed Abu Dhabi late Tuesday morning Central European Time. A further aircraft left Dubai bound for Munich in the early afternoon.
Between Saturday and Monday, almost 13,000 flights were cancelled across the Gulf region as a direct result of the Iran war. According to flight data analyst Cirium, approximately 900,000 seats were affected per day, meaning well over one million passengers were impacted in total. On Sunday, virtually 100 percent of all flights in the region were cancelled. By Monday, that figure still stood at 93.5 percent. Around 30,000 German package holidaymakers alone are currently stranded in the region, with an unknown number of independent travellers also affected.
Some flights had already begun departing Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Monday. By Tuesday, however, the departures board at Dubai International Airport continued to show predominantly cancellations. Among the airlines offering flights were Emirates, Russia's Aeroflot, and budget carrier FlyDubai. The situation was more encouraging in Saudi Arabia and Oman, where numerous flights to Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia resumed on Tuesday.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced on Monday that charter flights would be sent to Saudi Arabia and Oman to evacuate stranded German travellers, with priority given to vulnerable groups including pregnant women, children, and the elderly. Speaking to the broadcaster Welt TV on Tuesday, Wadephul confirmed that the first charter flight would depart from Muscat, Oman, on Wednesday.
Travel giant TUI announced plans to begin bringing stranded German tourists home as early as Tuesday. TUI chief executive Sebastian Ebel told broadcasters RTL and ntv that the first flight was heading to Munich. Ebel confirmed that TUI is working with Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways to facilitate the operation. TUI's own airline, Tuifly, also has aircraft on standby ready to fly as soon as the necessary clearances are granted.
Of the approximately 30,000 stranded German package tourists, around 10,000 are TUI customers, 5,000 of them aboard cruise ships. Ebel said the full repatriation effort would take several days and was dependent on the availability of safe air corridors. A TUI spokesperson added that the operation needed to be coordinated at government level. The situation remained tense. Qatar reported on Tuesday that it had repelled Iranian strikes on its airport in Doha.
Parliamentary groups from the Greens and the Left party in the Bundestag criticised Foreign Minister Wadephul's handling of the crisis. Luise Amtsberg, the Greens' foreign policy spokesperson, told newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe that the escalation had been foreseeable for weeks. "The fact that the federal government is nonetheless unprepared and appears overwhelmed in this now acute danger situation is deeply troubling," she said.
Amtsberg stressed that protecting German citizens abroad is a fundamental duty of any federal government. "Announcing only on day three after the outbreak of war that you intend to evacuate individual vulnerable groups from the region is simply not enough," she said. Cansu Özdemir, foreign policy spokesperson for the Left party group, also criticised the federal government's crisis communication as inadequate, speaking to the same group of newspapers.
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
