Dubai's main airport is ramping up flights after traffic slumped 66% in March

• Dubai is trying to get its air travel industry back on its feet.

• Dubai Airports said it was ramping up flights now that the UAE airspace is "fully restored."

• Traffic at the international airport dropped 66% in March after the Iran war unfolded.

Dubai's air travel is on the mend.

Dubai Airports, which manages Dubai International Airport (DXB) and the smaller Al Maktoum International Airport, said in a Sunday X post that it was ramping up flights after a massive slump in March.

"With #UAE airspace now fully restored, we are scaling up operations, increasing flight movements in line with available regional routing capacity and enabling airlines to progressively restore their schedules," the group said.

Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports, said that the airports were working to accommodate increasing demand, "even as some regional routing constraints remain."

This comes after DXB, a key global transit hub, saw a massive decline in visitors in March, after the Iran war began on February 28. The airport had 2.5 million passengers in March, down 65.7% from March 2025, according to the release.

The airspaces over several major travel hubs in the Middle East have been partially closed for months as Iran and Israel have traded missile and drone strikes since February. Tens of thousands of travelers were stranded in the region in early March.

Iran launched attacks on several US embassies and military bases in the Gulf region. The US advised all Americans in the region to evacuate in March and continues to advise Americans to reconsider travel to the UAE.

The US and Iran reached a tentative ceasefire in April as both sides review peace deals. A cautious group of expats is now returning to Dubai.