Several flights were canceled Sunday out of LAX after Middle East countries closed their airspace amid a widening conflict after attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel.
Planes scheduled to depart for Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv were grounded, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
The cancellations occurred as, globally, hundreds of thousands of travelers were stranded Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Fliers scrambled to make new connections and get through to airlines on jammed phone lines.
Qatar Airways said flights to and from Doha had been canceled and didn’t provide an estimate for when service would resume.
“The safety of our passengers and employees is always our highest priority, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused,” Qatar Airways wrote on its website.
Emirates said all fights to and from Dubai were grounded until at least 3 p.m. local time on Monday.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and engaging with relevant authorities,” the airline wrote on its website.
El Al said all of its flights, along with those from its subsidiary Sundor, to and from Israel were canceled until at least 2 a.m. local time Wednesday. The airline said it would be contacting customers “proactively” about assigning them new flights once Israel’s airspace reopened.
Dubai International Airport, one of the largest in the world, suspended service indefinitely Sunday. In a post on its website, a spokesperson wrote that a concourse was damaged and four employees injured in an unspecified “incident.”
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