The dark orange sand storm started from Saudi Arabia and blanketed the East regions including Dubai and Abu Dhabi. All air traffic including Cargo flights were also disrupted

UAE is part of one of the world’s largest desert ‘Sahara’ and sand storms are a very common thing in this part of the world. Dubai international airport is one of the world’s busiest airports and is ranked among the top five in 2014 for passenger traffic.

Dubai airport is facing delays and cancellations in flights since Thursday which is due to the dark orange sandstorm from Saudi Arabia. This sandstorm has reduced visibility to dangerous levels, threatening delays in cargo flights from the entire world.

Dubai International Airport has surpassed London Heathrow Airport for the first time with 70.5 million passengers last year. In a statement the air traffic control authorities in UAE said that due to this orange haze weather across the Gulf region normal airport operations have been affected at Dubai International (DBX) and Al Maktoum International (DWC) with both major cargo and passenger flights seriously affected.

Dubai Airport in a recent email statement has said that the authorities are re-routing several flights to Al Maktoum Airport that is mainly used for Emirates Air Cargo operations only. This diversion will help the airport to minimize the disruption. Flights to international airports such as Muscat, Bahrain, Ras Al Khaimah, Lahore, Islamabad and Mumbai were either delayed or cancelled.

UAE’s second largest international airport and house of Etihad Airways, has said in an official statement that the Abu Dhabi Airports Company is dealing with the situation normally and flights are landing and taking-off according to the schedule. They have no delays or diversions at all due to the orange haze in UAE.

There is a partial delay in flights to the regions where this orange haze continues. They have delayed flights to Dammam, Saudi Arabia and one to Bahrain due to bad weather conditions on those airports. Air Arabia, Emirates and Air Sharjah are facing long delays in their operations and flights to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Qatar Airways has reported some disruption in the flights at Doha Air Port on Thursday morning; Gulf Air has several cancellations as well.