Virgin Atlantic to suspend Dubai operations after 16-hour 'flight to nowhere' during US-Iran war
Topics: World News, News, Iran, Travel
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: Fadel SENNA / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: World News, News, Iran, Travel
Virgin Atlantic has now suspended its flights to Dubai after one flight was forced to return to the UK after a 16 hour trip to nowhere.
Over the last week, travel across the globe has been severely disrupted, especially for passengers flying to, from or through the Middle East, due to the conflict in Iran.
In some cases, holidaymakers have been left stranded for days, while others rushed to book on to limited repatriation flights to get them home safely.
The Independent reports how one flight, VS400, took off from London Heathrow at 10.22pm on Friday (March 6) to Dubai, before having to return back to Britain while flying over Saudi Arabia, due to the airspace closing.
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The flight then diverted to Budapest to refuel for 90 minutes, after which it landed back at Heathrow following a further two hours in the air.
Dubbed the 'flight to nowhere' the aircraft essentially took a 16 hour journey without ever reaching its destination.
Virgin Atlantic has now canceled all flights to and from Dubai for the winter, except for one trip next week.
In a statement, Virgin Atlantic said: "The safety and security of our customers and our people is always our top priority. Following airport and airspace closures in Dubai and Riyadh on Saturday 7 March, we made the decision to cancel our London Heathrow, Dubai and Riyadh rotations. We have strict criteria that must be met for a flight to continue into a region, and our criteria for proceeding to Dubai and Riyadh were not met, resulting in the safe diversion of these flights."
It continued: “Our flights have been repatriating as many of our customers and people as possible. In light of our latest assessments, the VS400 between London Heathrow and Dubai on Sunday 8 March and VS401 between Dubai and London Heathrow on Monday 9 March have been cancelled. Dubai, a seasonal route, is now suspended until the end of the Winter 25 season (28 March), while flying to Riyadh is paused for the next two weeks, and will be assessed on an ongoing basis.
"We’d like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding and will contact any affected customers to discuss their options. We continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East with ongoing dynamic assessments and active changes to our flight routings based on the latest information and guidance, where required.”
Elsewhere amidst the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, President Donald Trump has hit out again at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his response.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “The United Kingdom, our once great Ally, maybe the greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.
“That’s OK, prime minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer - But we will remember. We don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won!”
This is not the first time that Trump has criticized Starmer, having previously remarked that he is 'not Winston Churchill', referring to the UK's famous wartime leader from World War Two.