Air France passengers trapped on eight-hour round trip to nowhere as Iran attack sparks flight diversion chaos

Tens of thousands of airline passengers are waking up where they did not expect to be after carriers diverted many planes in response to Iran’s overnight attack on Israel.

The normal flightpath from Europe and North America to the Gulf and south Asia is to fly to the southeast corner of Turkey and then head southeast over either Iran or Iraq.

But as missiles were fired from Iran over Iraq towards Israel, the airspace of both countries was closed. Jordan’s skies were also closed temporarily.

The most extreme response was Air France flight AF218 from Paris to Mumbai – in which the passengers endured an eight-hour trip to nowhere.

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The Airbus A350 had departed four hours late from Charles de Gaulle airport. By the time it reached Iraq, the nation’s airspace was suddenly closed. The plane turned around and, battling headwinds, finally arrived back at Paris CDG exactly 12 hours after the original departure time.

Among flights that did not return to base, air traffic was diverted south over Egypt, flying over central Saudi Arabia. The longer routes meant that many aircraft already in the skies had to refuel.

As a result, many planes reached their destinations two or three hours late – with flight connections wrecked.

Emirates and Qatar Airways were the main airlines affected, with most evening overnight flights from western Europe diverted. Both airlines rely on fast connections, with the majority of arriving passengers transferring to departing flights.

Kara Godfrey, deputy travel editor of The Sun, was hoping to connect at Dubai for a flight to Perth. She posted on X: “Currently stranded abroad – Emirates flight, headed for Dubai, was diverted to Vienna because of the airspace closure, meaning we missed our connection. The earliest flight? The 7th. Send help please.”

British Airways flight BA107 from London Heathrow to Dubai turned around just north of the Iraqi-Turkish border and diverted to Larnaca in Cyprus. The Boeing 777 eventually arrived over four hours late.

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BA’s inbound flight from Sydney and Singapore to Heathrow, one of the longest nonstop routes, landed at Dubai to refuel before continuing to London, where it arrived two hours late.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Safety and security are always our highest priorities and we continuously assess and adjust our operations accordingly.”

An Etihad flight from Heathrow diverted to Riyadh en route to Abu Dhabi and arrived four hours late. Wizz Air also had a number of diversions to the UAE capital.

These were the key Gulf carriers’ diversions:

Under air passengers’ rights rules, travellers on flights starting in the UK or European Union are entitled to be flown to their final destination as soon as possible, and provided with hotels and meals as appropriate until they can fly.

But they will not get cash compensation because the cause was beyond the control of airlines.