Britain is laying on a single rescue flight from Oman this week despite having 130,000 British nationals declaring they are stuck in the Middle East and may need evacuation.
The plane chartered by the Government will take off from Muscat ‘in the coming days’, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Commons.
Ms Cooper also revealed that 130,000 British nationals have signed up to the Register Your Presence programme in the Middle East as of this morning, describing it as an ‘unprecedented number’.
More than 11,000 commercial flights have been cancelled with 1million people affected since airspace over the Gulf largely closed as the US and Israel launched a co-ordinated attack on Iran on Saturday.
Britain is still considering an evacuation plan – but appears to be largely relying on commercial airspace reopening given there is only one rescue flight planned so far.
Ms Cooper said: ‘We are also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, with priority for vulnerable nationals, and a Government charter flight will fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals, but British nationals in Oman must wait to be contacted by the foreign office regarding these options, and we will continue to work 24/7 on supporting British nationals in the region.’
She told MPs it is ‘a very fast-moving situation’ with ‘unprecedented numbers of British nationals in the region’.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper leaves 10 Downing Street today before giving a statement to the Commons on the situation in the Gulf
She added: ‘As of this morning, 130,000 British nationals have now signed up to the Register Your Presence Programme, which is vital to the Foreign Office’s ability to know where people are and to provide updates and advice.
‘Members will know that in many of these countries, the airspace is still closed, but I am in close contact with my counterparts across the region, speaking again yesterday with the UAE on the excellent support that they are providing and some of the departures that they are now securing as this becomes viable’.
Desperate wealthy expats in Dubai have been driving across the desert to escape Iranian attacks via neighbouring Oman or Saudi Arabia on £20,000-a-seat private jets.
One multi-millionaire who fled the United Arab Emirates’ largest city was spotted at a luxury hotel in Muscat yesterday, having driven for five hours in his Ferrari.
Some are choosing the even longer journey by road from Dubai to Riyadh, which takes 10 to 11 hours. Others have tried to leave via Dammam on Saudi’s east coast, despite its proximity to Bahrain, which was bombed overnight.
Queues have formed at petrol stations in Dubai as petrol prices rise and some leave by car.
Private jet bookings are up 55 per cent – reportedly commanding a fee of up to £260,000 per trip or £20,000 per spot on a 13-seat plane – as the rich and powerful flee the war-torn Middle East.
But there is hope for the tens of thousands trapped there because Dubai’s airport wants to resume full operations today if there are no more attacks from Iran.
The Daily Mail met relieved Brits arriving back home last night on the only flight back so far from the United Arab Emirates since the Iran attacks.
The Etihad Airways plane landed at Heathrow Terminal 4 at 7.16pm – two days after the US and Israel struck Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and prompting a furious Iranian response.
Isabel Robertson, 29, of Windsor, was greeted with a hug from mother Alba as she landed on Monday.
She had been staying with friends in Dubai, which has come under repeated attack by the Iranian regime.
Residential areas around Dubai Marina and Palm Jumeirah, areas hugely popular with western tourists, were attacked, setting the luxury hotel Fairmont The Palm ablaze and damaging the Burj Al Arab.
Isabel, who previously lived in the Emirate city, had been due to fly home on Saturday, but her flight was cancelled.
Dancer Isabel told the Daily Mail: ‘I went to see my friends. I had such a great week. I had meant to have been leaving on Saturday. My friend was going to drive me to the airport.
‘I was like ‘Why has my flight been cancelled?’ Ten minutes later I could hear an explosion.’
Isabel Robertson (pictured), 29, of Windsor was greeted with a hug from mother Alba as she landed on Monday
Relieved Brits arrived back home tonight on the only flight back so far from the United Arab Emirates since the Iran attacks. Pictured: Cath and Dom after she touched back down
Jeff and Rebecca Moses from Manchester, who were staying in Fairmont Bab Al Bahr hotel
Flights from major hubs in the region have been cancelled en masse, stranding tens of thousands of Brits working, holidaying or transiting through
She added: ‘There were explosions this morning. It has been terrifying, like honestly, terrifying.
‘The noises, it was terrifying, the explosions. I used to live there and it was my first time back in three years.’
Mother Alba, 62, said: ‘When I watched the news, I was very worried.’
The flight was one of the only departures – alongside flights to Amsterdam, Munich and Cairo – out of Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport after Iranian missiles and drones began hitting the city over the weekend.
Amy Maguire, 23, was also on the eight-hour flight back after going on holiday with her baby daughter Anabel and her parents.
She said: ‘It has been horrifying.
‘It has been really difficult not knowing if your child is safe. The sounds have been horrendous. We had to go in this little room under the hotel.’
Amy was holidaying in Abu Dhabi with her parents Rebecca and Jeff Moses, of Barrow-in-Furness.
Fay McCaul, 41, who was due to leave the UAE for London on Saturday, said ‘sirens started going off’ and people were told ‘to stay away from windows because of potential missile strikes’ when she was waiting for her flight.
She said: ‘It was just taking ages to board, with no announcements, so we didn’t know what was going on.
‘And then after the boarding time sirens started going off in the airport and everyone started receiving texts on their phones with alarm signals to stay away from windows because of potential missile strikes. So then it was pretty chaotic, and the airline obviously didn’t know what was going on either.’
The London-bound flight had been delayed by just over an hour.
Joseph Hughes, 31, described the mood on board as ‘nervy’ and ‘very quiet’ as the plane closed in on European airspace.
He and his partner had been stranded in the UAE since Saturday after he was transferred to Abu Dhabi when his initial flight back from Qatar was cancelled due to a technical problem.
He spent two days in a hotel watching missiles being intercepted overhead.
Speaking from the plane, Joseph, who runs an IT consultancy, from Liverpool, said: ‘I’m relieved to be going home. It’s a strange juxtaposition of people lying by a pool with music playing while missiles fly overhead.
‘With any sound of a plane or noise in the sky everyone yesterday was looking up immediately to check what was happening.
‘I feel very lucky to be one of a small few who managed to get a flight out today as I know there are 90,000 plus British nationals in the region who will be worried about how they will get home.
‘The mood on board the plane is fine, but a lot of people were dubious about us leaving including me.
‘As we were boarding Etihad updated their site to say all flights were postponed until 2pm on Tuesday, so we were nervous about ours being cancelled.
‘It was also concerning that there had been reports of explosions in Dubai a couple of hours beforehand too.
‘All passengers were picked up and dropped at airport via local school buses this morning.
‘It was very quiet on the plane and there hasn’t been an in-flight meal, just a few crisps which I suspect is because they weren’t able to prepare anything or didn’t want to commit to preparing perishables in the likely case it was cancelled.
‘It’s also been quite nervy.’
Another passenger, Jeff, 60, said: ‘We should have flown to Manchester. But we would have flown anywhere to get home.’
The flight returned as more than 100,000 Brits are scrambling to get home amid furious Iranian attacks on the Middle East.
Around 102,000 Britons trapped in the Middle East have registered with the Foreign Office as the UK draws up plans for one of the biggest evacuations of its citizens in peacetime.
Airspace over the Gulf is largely closed as the US and Israel launched a coordinated attack on Iran – and retaliatory strikes from Tehran then hit tourist and expat hotspots such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Kuwait.
Flights from major hubs in the region have been cancelled en masse, stranding tens of thousands of Brits working, holidaying or transiting through.
Amongst them is an army of influencers in Dubai, although some have vowed to stay on claiming it is still safer than London, despite a wave of Iranian missile strikes and suicide drone attacks on military sites, oil refineries, airports and hotels.
The Fairmont Palm hotel in Dubai was hit over the weekend as tourist areas were hit by Iran
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said today there are around 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries targeted by Iran.
And Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers are understood to be drawing up contingency plans to evacuate them over land from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
With Iranian missiles and drones still coming, Emirates Airlines confirmed that all flights operating through Dubai have been grounded until 11am GMT on Tuesday at the earliest.
Qatar Airways have said that no flights will leave Doha until Tuesday morning, again at the very earliest.
Ms Cooper said: ‘We are setting up the support systems because as well as the 94,000 people who have been in touch when we set up the ‘register your presence’ system, there’s an estimated 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries that have now been targeted by Iran, including countries where now airspace is closed as a result of those attacks.
‘That is, of course, extremely stressful for people who include holidaymakers and transit passengers at airports, people who have gone there for business trips, as well as those who live in the region as well.
‘So we’re saying to people, the most important thing at the moment is to follow the local advice, which in most places is around sheltering in place, and we are sending out rapid deployment teams to the region to work with the travel industry, to work with local governments as well, to make sure that citizens can get support.
‘Of course, we want people to get safely home as swiftly as possible.’ Asked if evacuation plans were being drawn up, she said: ‘We are working on every possible option,’ in a media round where she also stated it was ‘not in the UK’s interests’ to join Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran.
It came as Iran struck RAF Akrotiri last night with a ‘kamikaze’ attack drone after Sir Keir Starmer U-turned on a US request to use British military bases to hit back at Iran’s missile sites.
This morning there was a dispersal order issued for non-essential personnel at the RAF’s Cyprus hub. Families were told to pack a bag with essentials to last three to five days – although their pets will have to be left behind with ‘appropriate care’.
‘Please remain in place until directed to move by station authorities. This will be done in street order’, the British Forces memo said.
Countries across the Gulf scrambled to close their airspaces as the US and Israel launched a co-ordinated attack on Iran over the weekend, and retaliatory strikes across the Middle East followed.
Travel plans were plunged into chaos after airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were hit, killing at least one person and injuring 11.
Nearly 6,000 flights have been cancelled globally and almost 30,000 delayed since the conflict broke out, according to the flight tracking website FlightRadar. It marks one of the biggest disruptions to travel since the pandemic.