More than 21,000 canceled flights: Middle East travel chaos in 5 charts

By Alex Leeds Matthews, Soph Warnes, Rosa de Acosta, Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa, Lou Robinson, Renée Rigdon, CNN

(CNN) — Hundreds of thousands of travelers are stranded in the Middle East after the cancellation of thousands of flights as war rages across the region, though some airports are starting to get more flights out as the war continues its second week.

More than 21,000 flights scheduled to depart from large airports in 10 countries have been canceled since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, data from Flightradar24 shows.

Flight data paints a stark picture of empty flight paths across the normally busy skies. Several Persian Gulf airports and airlines had completely suspended normal operations during the first week of the war. As of March 10, 10 countries had totally or partially closed their airspace at some point since the strikes, according to Flightradar24.

Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates — one of the world’s busiest flight hubs connecting 291 destinations — dropped 85% of its scheduled flights in the first week after the strikes began. In February alone, the airport handled 4.9 million seats, according to the Official Aviation Guide, a reference for air travel data.

Flights have been canceled at high rates at other airports in the region, including around 54% of flights from Sharjah, an emirate bordering Dubai, along with 62% from Doha, Qatar.

Despite the ongoing uncertainty in the region, some airports began resuming flights, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and King Khalid International near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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