Last night, there was return fire from Iran in response to the operation conducted by the United States over the weekend. Consequentially, the airspace for Qatar, then the UAE, and reportedly even Bahrain and Kuwait shut down. Eventually, things calmed down a bit, and the airspace is progressively opening up.

Qatari Airspace Open

At around 3 AM IST, Qatar, where the attacks from Iran were headed, and was the first to shut down its airspace, reopened. Here is the NOTAM from Qatar, announcing the airspace open again.

Even Qatar Airways announced the reinstatement of flights.

Qatar Airways confirms reinstatement of flights as airspace reopens in the State of Qatar.

Our focus at this time is to help our passengers return home or reach their onward journey safely and smoothly.

We’ve deployed extra ground staff at Hamad International Airport to support…

— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) June 23, 2025

At the moment, Doha is busy clearing the backlog of flights which were diverted, and it will be a while before things normalise.

UAE Airspace Open

The UAE Airspace, and many UAE based airports, including important ones such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and others such as Sharjah, Ras Al Khamiah and Fujeirah also shut at the peak of the attacks by Iran on Qatar. They subsequently reopened, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi taking the lead.

Emirates confirmed their operations may be longer, but no diversions were caused.

Due to the recent regional situation, a number of Emirates flights were rerouted enroute to Dubai on 23 June, but there were no diversions.

After a thorough and careful risk assessment, Emirates will continue to operate flights as scheduled, using flight paths well distanced… pic.twitter.com/YDbHVD9uJv

— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) June 23, 2025

Bahrain and Kuwait Airspace Open

While Bahrain and Kuwait never released a NOTAM to shut their airspace, on the radio frequencies, it was amply clear that they were shut. The Bahrain and Kuwait Airspace also opened, even before Qatar reopened their airspace.

Consequently, while a massive hole still exists in the airspace, due to Iran – Israel airspace being shut, the rest of the corridors have now opened up. Here is the current view over the Middle East, Via FlightRadar24.

Bottomline

In a move focussed towards safety last night, Qatar shut their airspace. A bit after, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, all of which line up across Iran, also shut their airspace in a move to protect commercial traffic from coming in the crossfire of the firing by Iran. All of the airspace has progressively opened up after a few hours, and Iran and Israel are at truce, at least for now.

What do you think, will this be a boiling point on an ongoing basis, or last night was the end of this disruption for a long while?

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