UAE airline suspends flights to Ukraine for a day; other carriers 'monitoring global airspace'

A UAE airline has suspended flights to Ukraine temporarily after Russia launched an attack on the East European country on Thursday morning.

Ukraine closed the airspace, citing a high risk to civilian aircraft.

The airlines had been avoiding Ukrainian airspace for the past few days after tension escalated between the two countries.

"The provision of air traffic services to civilian users of the airspace of Ukraine is suspended," Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise said on its website.

Dubai's budget carrier flydubai said it temporarily suspended flights to Ukraine for a day due to the military conflict.

"Flydubai flights between Dubai and Ukraine have been temporarily suspended on February 24. We will be in touch with the passengers regarding their refund and rebooking options," the airline's spokesperson said in a statement to Khaleej Times.

Dubai's Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways don't operate flights to Ukraine. Response from Air Arabia was awaiting till the filing of this report.

"Etihad Airways has no flights operating to or over Ukraine. Etihad vigilantly monitors global airspace restrictions and threats. The safety and wellbeing of our guests is always Etihad's highest priority," an Etihad spokesperson said in a statement earlier.

Source: Khaleej Times