{"id":335218,"date":"2026-03-08T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T10:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335218\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T10:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T10:28:07","slug":"relieved-family-reunions-at-dublin-airport-as-chartered-flight-from-oman-lands-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/335218\/","title":{"rendered":"Relieved family reunions at Dublin Airport as chartered flight from Oman lands \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were relieved family reunions at Dublin Airport<\/a> after the Government\u2019s first chartered flight from the Middle East<\/a> touched down.<\/p>\n

The flight from Muscat in Oman landed just before 5am, several hours after its scheduled midnight arrival.<\/p>\n

It made a stop in Cairo and was carrying 194 people.<\/p>\n

The flight was chartered to bring Irish citizens home amid escalating hostilities between Israel, the United States and Iran.<\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> said it had been a challenging journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased to confirm the arrival into Dublin of a chartered repatriation flight from Oman. I want to welcome home all those who travelled on the flight we have chartered to assist those stranded in the Gulf region,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know their return will be an enormous relief for themselves and for their families and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a challenging journey, in particular for those who travelled over land to Muscat, but I am glad that we have been able to directly facilitate the return of nearly 200 people, including a number of children and infants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Irish citizens returned recently from the region via commercial Emirates flights from Dublin. Another is due to land at 6.55pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Voices of Iranian women: \u2018We celebrated, but we cried. We danced, and we mourned\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Other Irish people have managed to get indirect flights to Ireland from Abu Dhabi or Dubai through London or Paris.<\/p>\n

McEntee said about 1,500 people have returned to Ireland in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage all those still in the UAE and who want to leave to avail of commercial options where those are available,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last week has been incredibly distressing for our citizens in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation remains volatile, with further attacks on the UAE and other Gulf countries today, and on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would ask any Irish citizens in the Gulf to register their presence in order to give my department the clearest information possible of the situation on the ground.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Why have the US and Israel attacked Iran? Why has Dubai been hit? Could the conflict spread?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 18,000 people have done so since last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny citizen in the Gulf seeking assistance is encouraged to call the consular crisis team in Dublin directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s chartered flight, which reportedly cost \u20ac800 a seat, departed Muscat in Oman on Saturday. <\/p>\n

There are about 24,000 Irish citizens across the region who have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

An estimated 14,000 Irish people are living in Dubai, a further 2,000 in Abu Dhabi and more than 2,000 in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

On Friday it was indicated that the consular crisis team had responded to more than 2,300 queries since last weekend.<\/p>\n

Dublin Airport said on Saturday that disruption to flights from the Middle East had continued for the eighth consecutive day, with just two scheduled flights to the Middle East operating, one inbound and one outbound Emirates flight to and from Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll other flights to Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi have been cancelled by airlines,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther disruption is likely in the days ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, passengers due to fly should contact their airline directly for the latest updates on the status of their flight.\u201d – PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were relieved family reunions at Dublin Airport after the Government\u2019s first chartered flight from the Middle East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1844,11900,42,1556,11829,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-335218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-dublin-airport","tag-headlines","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}