Aegean Airlines postpones Dubai relaunch to September; other carriers also push back UAE return dates

Greek flag-carrier Aegean Airlines has notified customers that its Athens–Dubai service—which it had hoped to resume in June—will now remain suspended until at least 31 August 2026. The extension forms part of a broader rewrite of the airline’s Middle-East network as conflict-related overflight risks and elevated insurance costs continue to bite. Aegean’s decision follows similar moves by European and Asian carriers. British Airways has taken Abu Dhabi off its summer schedule, Lufthansa has frozen capacity growth into the Gulf, and low-cost rival Pegasus has halted UAE operations until June. Analysts say smaller or sixth-freedom carriers are disproportionately exposed because they lack the fleet flexibility of Emirates or Etihad, and because passengers can usually re-route via mega-hubs in Istanbul, Doha or Jeddah without a fare premium. For organisations that rely on point-to-point links between southern Europe and the UAE—shipping, maritime services, and energy firms among them—the cancellations complicate crew-change planning and urgent-spare parts logistics. Employers will likely need to budget for extra layovers or utilise charter solutions until schedules stabilise in the autumn shoulder-season.



Amid these disruptions, getting travel documents sorted quickly becomes even more important. VisaHQ’s online platform can expedite UAE visas, keep teams updated on the latest entry rules, and offer end-to-end assistance for passport handling—crucial when itineraries change at short notice. Companies and individuals can review requirements or launch an application at https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/ shaving days off an already tight turnaround and removing one more variable from complex logistics planning.

Aegean is offering full refunds or free date changes for affected itineraries booked before 31 July, but only if requests are filed within the same window. Travel managers should diarise those deadlines and verify whether downstream interline segments (for example onward codeshares to Muscat or Kuwait) will auto-cancel once the Dubai leg is removed. Although demand for leisure travel into Greece remains strong, the airline’s retreat from Dubai underscores a wider trend: non-Gulf carriers are opting to concentrate scarce wide-body capacity on trans-Atlantic and intra-European routes where security risks are lower and yields higher. That could leave Dubai and Abu Dhabi increasingly dependent on home-market and regional players for connectivity through the summer.