By Dean Seal

Daria Guristrimba, who runs Globe 7, a luxury travel-advisory firm based in London, has been helping clients who were in Dubai escape across the border to Muscat, Oman, where flights were still taking off.

Many customers are attempting to leave the United Arab Emirates through Oman because Saudi Arabia, their only other escape route, has strict visa requirements for many nationalities, Guristrimba said.

Crossings into Oman were temporarily suspended Monday for visitors who didn't live in neighboring Middle Eastern countries, leaving some of Guristrimba's customers stranded at or near the border. The crossings resumed within a few hours and continued unabated Tuesday, she said.

Flights directly from the U.A.E. remain scarce, and food imports appear to have been disrupted, Guristrimba said.

"If something happens in Oman and they close the airspace, there would be no way to escape," she said. "That's the biggest fear."

More than half of the 32,000 flights scheduled to arrive or depart from the Middle East since Saturday have been cancelled, according to aviation data provider Cirium. Most flights leaving Bahrain, Qatar, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have been scrubbed.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 03, 2026 17:21 ET (22:21 GMT)

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