How to Keep Your Airspace Open During a War?
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- 3 min read
The UAE has demonstrated how airspace can remain operational during conflict through effective civil-military coordination and adaptive airspace management. By maintaining flexibility and close collaboration, the country was able to restore flight activity rapidly despite significant regional instability.
Published: 5 June 2026
Written by: Shashwat Dwivedi
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation Leadership Summit was held in late May in Lisbon, bringing together aviation leaders from across the globe. Ahmed Al Jallaf, Assistant Director General of Air Navigation Services at the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the UAE, addressed delegates on the country’s efforts to keep its airspace operational amid the Middle East conflict.
“The scale of the impact on traffic has been huge, and air traffic control officials are adopting a new approach to civil-military collaboration,” he said.
To put things into perspective, the average flight movement in UAE airspace before the conflict was around 3,000 to 3,400 per day. This dropped to just 29 on the second day of the conflict.
“We had restricted airspace operations, but we did not fully close our airspace,” Al Jallaf explained. “The first 24 to 48 hours were the time airspace users needed to assess the security of their operations.”
Over the past two decades, this high-density airspace, covering an area of 124,000 km² (35,000 nm²), has become a vital east–west corridor, supporting traffic flows between Europe and Asia while serving the busy Gulf region. This region, known as the Emirates Flight Information Region (FIR), is controlled by the UAE’s air traffic control service from the Sheikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre near Abu Dhabi International Airport.
During peacetime, almost half of the FIR is designated as military airspace, with limited civilian use permitted. However, with the conflict escalating close to the region, a significantly larger portion of the airspace was placed under military control. Due to the UAE’s proximity to Iran, the country has faced heightened operational risk, including threats from ballistic missiles and drone activity.
A high level of cooperation between the UAE military and civil air traffic control authorities proved critical in enabling the rapid resumption of civilian flights.
Al Jallaf described a shift away from traditional processes. Rather than submitting requests to the military and waiting for approval, authorities engaged proactively at a management level to understand operational constraints and collaboratively develop workable solutions.
“That level of understanding has allowed us to gradually open more areas towards more flexible use of airspace and to ease operational restrictions,” he said. “It is not a secret that aviation infrastructure has been targeted several times, which adds further complexity to the resumption of operations.”
The results highlight the effectiveness of this approach. Flight movements through UAE airspace recovered to approximately 1,600 per day by mid-April, before increasing further to around 2,000 per day by late May.
Key Facts
UAE flight movements dropped from over 3,000 to just 29 per day at the peak of the conflict
Airspace was restricted but never fully closed
Strong civil-military coordination enabled gradual reopening
Emirates FIR is a key east–west corridor linking Europe and Asia
Flexible airspace management played a critical role in recovery
Traffic recovered to around 2,000 flights per day by late May
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Author: Shashwat Dwivedi Aviation staffing and consultancy insights LinkedIn
