Dubai Airports sent a letter to foreign carriers on March 27, and the fallout has been playing out for weeks — but the hard deadline lands in two days. Starting April 20, all foreign airlines are capped at one rotation per day at both Dubai International (DXB) and Al Maktoum International (DWC), through May 31.

Most carriers haven’t cut back. They’ve been cut off entirely.

British Airways canceled all Dubai flights through May 31. The Lufthansa Group — Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, ITA Airways, Brussels Airlines — is out through the same date. KLM is suspended through June 14. Singapore Airlines pulled its SQ494/SQ495 Dubai pair. If you have a Dubai connection or destination booking on any of these carriers, that flight is almost certainly gone.

Emirates and flydubai are exempt. They operate under the UAE’s national emergency flight plan. Foreign carriers are playing by an entirely different set of rules.

Situation at a Glance — April 18, 2026

Carrier	Status	Through
British Airways	All Dubai flights canceled	May 31, 2026
Lufthansa	Canceled	May 31, 2026
SWISS	Canceled (Lufthansa Group)	May 31, 2026
Austrian Airlines	Canceled (Lufthansa Group)	May 31, 2026
ITA Airways	Canceled (Lufthansa Group)	May 31, 2026
Brussels Airlines	Canceled (Lufthansa Group)	May 31, 2026
KLM	Suspended	June 14, 2026
Singapore Airlines	Dubai pair suspended	May 31, 2026
Emirates	Exempt — ~70% capacity	—
flydubai	Exempt — ~40% capacity	—

The most important thing: Most affected carriers have free rebooking waivers active right now. Check the airline app or website before you buy a replacement ticket out of pocket.

What the Cap Actually Does

The cap is a slot restriction, not a ban. Dubai Airports is limiting each foreign carrier to one departure and one arrival per day across DXB and DWC combined. For airlines that normally run multiple daily Dubai rotations — which describes every major European and Asian carrier routing through the Gulf — one slot per day means the rest disappear.

The restriction comes from military airspace management over the region, EASA’s ongoing Conflict Zone Information Bulletin (extended through at least April 24), and the resulting reduction in DXB’s usable slot capacity. Dubai Airports has said additional slots will be allocated “if capacity allows.” No one is banking on that before May 31.

The cap explains why carriers are limited, but it doesn’t fully explain why most European airlines aren’t operating even that one permitted slot. British Airways and the Lufthansa Group pulled their flights entirely because EASA’s conflict zone guidance makes operating into the region commercially unviable under war-risk insurance terms — the cap is a separate constraint on top of that.

How to Check if Your Flight Is Actually Gone

The only reliable way is to check your booking directly.

Don’t assume you’re fine because your carrier isn’t in the headlines. The cap affects every foreign carrier at DXB. If your airline normally runs two or more Dubai rotations per day, your specific flight may have been eliminated even if the carrier still holds one daily slot.

How to Check Your Dubai Booking

1. Open your booking confirmation email and find your booking reference number
2. Log into your airline’s app or “Manage My Booking” portal with that reference
3. Look for any cancellation alert, change notification, or rebooking offer
4. If nothing appears, search your specific flight number directly on the airline’s site — not on a third-party tool, which can show stale data
5. For OTA bookings (Expedia, Booking.com, etc.), check the OTA platform and the airline’s own site — airlines typically update their systems first
6. If your flight still shows as operating, note the departure time — the cap may have reshuffled the schedule even for flights that technically still run

Your Rebooking Rights

This is where people lose money.

When an airline cancels your flight or makes a significant schedule change, you’re entitled to a full cash refund. Not a travel voucher. Not credit toward future travel. Cash back to your original payment method. EU261 applies to UK and European passengers on qualifying routes; US DOT rules cover US-origin flights and US-carrier flights; similar protections exist under most national consumer aviation laws.

Beyond the legal minimums, every major affected carrier has issued a voluntary waiver that goes further: free rebooking on available flights with an extended travel window, often through October 2026.

Use the waiver before you buy anything else. A passenger who purchases a replacement ticket without first invoking the carrier waiver may lose the right to reimbursement. Find out what the airline will cover first.

Airline Waiver Details

British Airways

BA canceled all Dubai operations through May 31 and is targeting a return on July 1 at reduced (one daily) capacity. For canceled flights, BA offers a full cash refund or free rebooking on an alternative BA route within an extended window. Go to ba.com and use “Manage My Booking” — the cancellation notice should include a direct link to the refund or rebooking flow.

If your BA flight included Dubai as a connection to a further destination (London to Bangkok via Dubai, for example), BA is responsible for getting you to Bangkok on an alternative routing — not just to the canceled Dubai leg. Ask specifically for end-to-end reaccommodation.

Lufthansa Group (SWISS, Austrian, ITA, Brussels Airlines)

The Lufthansa Group waiver covers all Group carriers. Start at lufthansa.com. If you booked a Lufthansa codeshare on a SWISS or Austrian aircraft, the waiver still applies — but you may need to go through the operating carrier’s portal directly. SWISS uses swiss.com, Austrian uses austrian.com. The waiver terms should be consistent across all Group carriers.

KLM

KLM’s suspension runs through June 14 — the longest European pause of any carrier in this group. Waiver details at klm.com/information/travel-alerts. “My Trip” in the KLM app or website is the fastest path to rebooking or requesting a refund.

KLM is part of Air France-KLM. Check whether Air France is running any Amsterdam–Dubai alternatives. If so, the rebooking agent may be able to place you on an AF departure. Ask directly rather than assuming it’s off the table.

Singapore Airlines

SQ suspended both Dubai rotations (SQ494 and SQ495). Refund and reaccommodation options are through singaporeair.com. Singapore Airlines has a wide interline network, which means there’s a realistic possibility of rebooking onto a partner carrier for the leg beyond Dubai if your original itinerary continued somewhere else. That option doesn’t always get offered proactively — ask specifically.

Qatar Airways (flexibility policy)

Qatar itself isn’t subject to the Dubai cap. It operates from Hamad International Airport in Doha (DOH), which is a different country with different airspace authority. The DXB slot restriction doesn’t follow Qatar to DOH.

Qatar has issued passenger flexibility guidelines covering travel disrupted by the broader regional situation: complimentary date changes for affected bookings, with travel rebooked through October 31, 2026. Details at qatarairways.com/en/travel-alerts.html.

Qatar Airways: The Primary Alternative Hub

If your itinerary relied on Dubai as a connecting hub, Doha is the practical replacement right now.

Qatar Airways is targeting 120+ destinations through DOH by mid-May 2026, up from roughly 90 in mid-April. The network overlaps heavily with what Dubai covered — Europe to South Asia, South Asia to Africa, Australia to Europe via the Gulf. Qatar’s Doha hub isn’t under the same airspace constraints because it sits in Qatari airspace, not UAE airspace.

DOH also cleared EASA’s conflict zone bulletin period under different terms than DXB, which is why European carriers like British Airways can operate to Doha when they can’t operate to Dubai. That matters for connection options.

If you were routing Dubai to Bangkok, Singapore, Mumbai, Nairobi, or anywhere else Qatar serves: a Doha reroute is worth pricing before you build a completely different itinerary. Google Flights handles this search well — search origin to final destination (not origin to Dubai), filter to see DOH connections specifically, and compare against whatever direct or alternative routing shows up.

Tools for Finding Alternatives

Google Flights first. Search the origin-to-final-destination pair rather than origin-to-Dubai, and look at what’s routing the gap. The price graph view helps identify where competing alternatives have spiked (avoid those weeks) versus where seat availability still exists at reasonable prices.

Etihad (Abu Dhabi, AUH) is the third Gulf hub worth checking. AUH is a separate airport under separate authority (not subject to the DXB cap). Etihad has been picking up displaced connecting traffic since the DXB restrictions started. Fewer destinations than Qatar’s DOH, but worth comparing. Check etihad.com directly; Etihad fares don’t always surface cleanly in third-party aggregators.

Istanbul (IST) and Frankfurt (FRA) are both absorbing significant Gulf connection overflow right now. Turkish Airlines expanded frequencies on multiple Gulf corridor alternatives starting in March. If your original Dubai connection was Europe-to-Asia and you have flexibility on the hub, IST is worth pricing.

For comparing alternatives across tools: our Google Flights vs. Skyscanner guide covers which tool catches what on European and Asian routes — the short version is that Google Flights is stronger on EU/Asia routing but Skyscanner sometimes finds budget carrier options that Google misses.

If Dubai Was Your Connection, Not Your Destination

This is where the most confusion — and the most money — gets lost.

Single-ticket bookings: If your booking included Dubai as a connection to a further destination, the airline is responsible for getting you to your final destination, not just to Dubai. You didn’t book “to Dubai.” You booked to wherever the ticket ends. The rebooking obligation covers the whole trip.

Separate-ticket bookings: If you held one ticket for the first leg (say, London-Dubai on BA) and a separate ticket for the second leg (Dubai-Bangkok on another carrier), the situation is different. BA covers its canceled London-Dubai flight. Your independent Dubai-Bangkok ticket is a separate contract. The BA cancellation doesn’t obligate BA to fix it, even though it made that ticket worthless.

If you’re in the separate-ticket situation, check your credit card benefits before assuming the loss. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex Platinum, and Capital One Venture X all include trip interruption or cancellation protection that may cover downstream tickets made worthless by a carrier cancellation. Document the BA or KLM cancellation notice, save it with receipts, and file the card claim promptly — most issuers have 60–90 day claim windows.

Our travel insurance and airline compensation guide covers how credit card trip protection interacts with airline refunds in detail, including what documentation makes claims go cleanly.

Save This Before You Do Anything Else

Screenshot and keep:

• Your original booking confirmation with ticket numbers
• Any cancellation or change notice from the airline
• Any rebooking offer or waiver the airline presents (screenshot the chat, save the email)
• Receipts for anything you spend because of the disruption — meals, hotel, transport

That documentation is what makes a credit card trip protection claim or a travel insurance filing straightforward. It’s also your evidence if the airline pushes a voucher when you’re entitled to a cash refund.

The Bottom Line

The April 20 deadline isn’t when flights start disappearing — most already did. It’s the formal cap date that removes any remaining ambiguity about which foreign carriers can operate what going forward.

If you’re booked on British Airways, the Lufthansa Group, KLM, or Singapore Airlines for any Dubai flight through May 31: that flight is almost certainly canceled. Open the airline’s app or website now, invoke the free waiver, and choose between a refund or rebooking before options narrow. Qatar’s Doha hub and Etihad’s Abu Dhabi hub are the practical routing alternatives. Google Flights handles the search.

Don’t buy a replacement ticket before you’ve confirmed the airline waiver. That order of operations matters more than anything else here.

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For the full picture of what carriers owe passengers during Gulf disruptions — including why EU261 pays out differently in conflict-adjacent situations — our Middle East flight crisis rebooking guide covers the legal framework. And if your Dubai disruption is part of a larger itinerary problem, the Middle East airspace closure stranded travelers guide has the broader context.

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Dubai airport restrictions current as of April 18, 2026. Airline waiver terms, suspension dates, and the DXB slot cap are subject to change — verify directly with your airline before acting.