Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace on Saturday.
There also was no flight activity over the United Arab Emirates, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government there announced a "temporary and partial closure" of its airspace.
That led to the closure of key hub airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, and the cancellation of more than 1800 flights by major Middle Eastern airlines.
The three major airlines that operate at those airports - Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad - typically have about 90,000 passengers per day crossing through those hubs and even more travellers headed to destinations in the Middle East, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Two airports in the United Arab Emirates reported incidents as the government there condemned what it called a "blatant attack involving Iranian ballistic missiles".
Officials at Dubai International Airport - the largest in the United Arab Emirates and one of the busiest in the world - said four people were injured, while Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi said that one person was killed and seven others were injured in a drone strike. Strikes were also reported at Kuwait International Airport.
Though Iran did not publicly claim responsibility, the scope of retaliatory strikes that Gulf nations attributed to Iran extended beyond the American bases that it previously said it would target.
Dubai's landmark Burj Al Arab hotel was also damaged as overnight Iranian retaliatory attacks spread across the Gulf states and the wider Middle East.
Dubai later confirmed that a drone was intercepted, and debris caused a minor fire on the Burj Al Arab's facade.
Dubai is the biggest tourism and trade hub in the Middle East and its airport is one of the world's busiest travel hubs.
The Burj Al Arab hotel has long been one of the emirate's most recognisable symbols. Opened in 1999 on an artificial island off Jumeirah Beach, the sail-shaped tower quickly became an emblem of a city intent on projecting luxury on a global scale.
Airlines that cross the Middle East will have to reroute flights around the conflict with many flights headed south over Saudi Arabia. That will add hours to those flights and consume additional fuel, adding to the costs airlines will have to absorb. So ticket prices could quickly start to increase if the conflict lingers.
The added flights will also put pressure on air traffic controllers in Saudi Arabia who might have to slow traffic to make sure they can handle it safely.
But it is unclear how long the disruption to flight operations could last. For comparison, the Israeli and US attack on Iran in June 2025 lasted 12 days.
