Episode Details

DESCRIPTION:

Every flight through the Gulf this month is being approved on the day, one flight at a time. If your December ticket to Europe or Asia connects in Dubai or Doha, this episode tells you who makes that decision and what to do about your own booking.

This week your phone filled up with videos of missiles over Riyadh and a travel warning from Washington. I read the US security alert for the UAE word for word. It is an alert about the whole region. It does not say the Emirates is unsafe, and it tells Americans to check their flight with the airline.

Then the week as it actually happened: flames and smoke near Riyadh's main airport, which Yemen's Houthis claimed and Saudi Arabia did not confirm. Iranian airlines suspending flights to Baghdad, Muscat, Qatar, Georgia and Azerbaijan after the United States tightened sanctions. Kuwait's airspace closed to aircraft flying over it. The European regulator telling its airlines to stay out of Iran and Iraq entirely, and to avoid flying over the waters of the Gulf except when arriving at or departing from the airports there. The airports themselves are open.

South Africa feels this more than most countries because so much of our traffic to Europe and Asia connects through Dubai and Doha. When the airspace over the Emirates closed on 1 March this year, the airports company counted fourteen cancellations across Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in a single day.

I explain how an airline decides, every single day, whether a flight goes: the security team, the regulator bulletins, and the flight plan built against whatever airspace is open that morning. Fewer open routes means longer flights, more fuel and less room to move when something changes. I also explain what the crew sees when GPS is being jammed or spoofed, and why that is manageable, because the aircraft has other ways to navigate and we now train for it in the full flight simulator.

Then three things for you: buy the ticket that lets you change, through the airline or a proper travel agent. On the day, check the airline's own flight status, not the news. And read the war and conflict line in your travel insurance.

IN THIS EPISODE

The US travel alert for the UAE, read word for word

What happened in the Gulf this week

Which airspace is open and which is restricted

Why South Africa feels it more than most countries

How an airline decides every day whether a flight goes

What happens when a route closes while you are in the air

GPS jamming and spoofing, and why pilots can manage it

Three things to do with your December ticket

The regulator dates to watch: 30 September and 2 October

I'm Bryan Roseveare. I was an airline captain. I still go to work on the flight deck. It's just a full flight simulator now, and the pilots I train are the ones who fly you around.

SOURCES

US Mission to the UAE, security alert, 19 September 2026 → https://ae.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-mission-united-arab-emirates-september-19-2026/

EASA Conflict Zone Information Bulletin CZIB-2026-07R2, airspace of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman → https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/domains/air-operations/czibs/czib-2026-07r2

ABC News (Reuters reporting), fire near Riyadh airport, 20 September 2026 → https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-20/fire-near-riyadh-airport-as-houthis-attack-saudi-capital/107173362

AFP via The Citizen, Iranian airlines cancel flights as US sanctions take effect, 23 September 2026 → https://www.citizen.co.za/news/news-world/iran-airlines-cancel-flights-as-us-sanctions-hit/

OPSGROUP, Middle East airspace: current operational picture → https://ops.group/blog/middle-east-airspace-current-operational-picture/

Safe Airspace, independent conflict zone and risk tracker → https://safeairspace.net/

IOL, UAE airspace closure: ACSA reports 14 South African flights cancelled, 1