How are Britons getting out of the Middle East?

A handful of flights will bring British nationals stranded in the Middle East back to the UK on Tuesday, but the majority of departures from the region remain cancelled.

Emirates plans to operate two flights to Heathrow and one each to Gatwick and Manchester.

At least some of these flights will be operated by the airline’s A380 jets, which can each carry up to 615 passengers depending on how they are configured.

Emirates usually operates 146 weekly flights to the UK, which is the equivalent of about 21 per day.

Etihad Airways has scheduled one UK flight on Tuesday, from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow.

This is with a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, which has 336 passenger seats.

Qatar Airways – which usually serves Heathrow and Gatwick from Qatar – said on Tuesday morning that its operations remain suspended because of the closure of Qatari airspace.

British Airways cancelled its timetabled flights to Heathrow from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha and Dubai on Tuesday.

The airline told passengers: “We are closely monitoring the situation and have cancelled a number of our flights to the Middle East.

“Safety is always our top priority and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so.”

Passengers with bookings on certain routes up to March 15 are being allowed to amend the date to fly on or before March 29.

Virgin Atlantic axed a flight from Dubai to Heathrow.

The conflict between Iran and the US and its allies has caused widespread airspace closures in the Middle East, sparking major disruption to flights.

About half a million passengers per day use airports in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi, which are vital hubs for travel between Europe and the continents of Asia and Australia.

UK-based aviation consultant John Strickland said it could take weeks to clear the backlog of passengers.

He told the Press Association: “It’s a bit uncertain (when that will happen) because of course it will depend on how long the airspace restrictions remain in place.

“But factoring in the high volumes of normal daily traffic and the high capacity of aircraft such as the A380 and the Boeing 777, plus the fact that other flights covering similar routes operate at high occupancy, then it will certainly be quite a period of time which would likely run into weeks.”