It took about five minutes for El Al to sell every seat on its first two rescue flights out of Dubai. By Friday morning, both flights were cancelled. Landing approval for Israeli airlines in Dubai had been withdrawn overnight, El Al said.

Israeli airlines had not flown to Dubai since late February, when Israel’s security authorities halted their flights to the UAE at the outset of the war with Iran. This week El Al, Israir and Arkia, the country’s three largest airlines, asked those authorities for permission to resume Dubai flights for good. The catalyst was an attack in somebody else’s cockpit.

On 30 September, the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed the captain of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and, Israeli officials say, tried to crash it. Passengers and crew overpowered him, and the jet landed safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. The Omani co-pilot has been handed over to the UAE, which is investigating whether the attack had a terrorist purpose.

Ten thousand people waiting for a seat

flydubai suspended its Tel Aviv flights while the investigation runs, and Emirates stopped accepting passengers bound for Tel Aviv. Israel’s Finance Ministry estimates that about 10,000 Israelis are trying to get home, including travellers in Thailand, India and elsewhere who planned to connect in Dubai. Mark Feldman, head of the Jerusalem travel agency Ziontours, told The Times of Israel that each day of the suspension leaves at least 1,700 Israelis stranded.

It is Sukkot, a heavy travel season for Israelis, and the state is paying part of the bill. The jets fly out empty and the government compensates the airlines for that leg; Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had ordered the budget. Fares are $249 one way on El Al, from $279 on Arkia and $299 on Israir, and on security instructions passengers may bring one personal bag only, with suitcases following by cargo.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says on X, in Hebrew, that he has ordered the budget for rescue flights to bring home Israelis left in Dubai and further east by the flight cancellations, 1 October 2026.

By midday Friday, Arkia said it had all the UAE approvals it needed and would fly one rescue flight that evening and another on Saturday, with three more being scheduled. Israir said it had final approval from the Emirati authorities.

El Al was less lucky with the calendar. It does not fly on Shabbat, which left it a shorter window on Friday to sort out the logistics. It is now working on approvals for Saturday night and has rescue flights planned for Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

A route built on the Abraham Accords

Few air routes carry as much political weight. On 31 August 2020, an El Al Boeing 737-900ER flew from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi across Saudi airspace, the first direct El Al flight to the UAE. flydubai opened scheduled Dubai–Tel Aviv flights that November, and Dubai became one of the most popular destinations for Israelis.

According to Reuters, the UAE accounted for 1.5 million passengers at Ben Gurion in 2025, 8.3% of the airport’s traffic, behind only Greece and the United States. Even with Israeli carriers barred, it still drew 837,000 Ben Gurion passengers in the first eight months of 2026, half of them on flydubai.

i24NEWS English: Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes the first commercial flight from Dubai to Israel, as the route opened after the Abraham Accords.

Shares of El Al and Israir have risen more than 12% since the attack, Reuters reported. El Al plans at least two daily Tel Aviv–Dubai flights from November, Arkia two a day and Israir up to ten a week, all subject to approval.

Arkia reckons each idle winter month on the route costs it about $1 million, and calls Dubai its most important route of the season. Its chief executive, Oz Berlovich, argues that a route flown almost entirely by foreign carriers cannot last.

Who has to say yes

The approval that matters belongs to the Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, which guides the security systems Israeli airlines use abroad. Since the war began, it has kept El Al, Israir and Arkia out of the UAE pending an agreement on aviation security, including screening facilities and security personnel. According to N12 News, it wanted extra screening equipment at the check-in counters Israeli airlines use there, and the Emiratis initially objected.

The ban never applied to foreign airlines, which Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority licenses and a Transportation Ministry security centre clears into Israeli airspace. So flydubai and Etihad kept flying. Shin Bet chief David Zini had warned for months that security arrangements on flights from the UAE were inadequate, Ynet reported, but foreign airlines sit outside his agency’s direct authority.

Israeli airlines had argued that the Emiratis had little incentive to settle while flydubai and Etihad held the market, Calcalist reported. FZ1073 changed that. Globes reported that the UAE agreed to Israel’s security demands on the evening of the attack, and N12 that it would install the extra screening machines. A senior Israeli security official told Reuters on Thursday that talks were continuing, and Israel is tightening checks on foreign pilots too.

flydubai, Emirates and the road back

Israel’s Transportation Ministry said flydubai’s suspension was in line with a directive from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli outlets reported an initial pause of six days. Emirates, which does not currently fly its own aircraft to Israel, suspended its codeshare on flydubai’s Tel Aviv flights on 30 September “with immediate effect, until further notice.” Israel has asked Etihad to add flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.

Arkia’s first rescue flight was due to leave Dubai on Friday evening. Regular flights in November depend on the Shin Bet, which Calcalist reports is not expected to approve them until the new security measures are in place. For the families waiting in Dubai hotels, every day of that process is another night away from home.

Sources: Reuters, 1 and 2 October 2026; The Times of Israel, 1-2 October 2026; Globes (English and Hebrew editions), 30 September 2026; Calcalist (Ctech), 30 September and 1 October 2026; Ynet, 1-2 October 2026; The Jerusalem Post, 30 September-2 October 2026; AFP via Malay Mail, 2 October 2026; dpa, 2 October 2026; Associated Press via PBS, 1 October 2026; The Independent, 1 October 2026; Israel National News, 2 October 2026; i24NEWS, 2 October 2026; Emirates travel update, 30 September 2026; Wikipedia (2026 Iran war; flydubai; Israel-United Arab Emirates relations); Al Jazeera, 9 February 2022; U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (Flickr), 2020; aeroTELEGRAPH, 2 October 2026