The UK Government’s first Middle East rescue flight has been delayed, with the Foreign Office blaming ‘technical issues’.
The charter flight, from Muscat, in Oman, had been due to leave for the UK at 23:00 on Wednesday (4 March).
Passengers had checked in and were taken to the aircraft but were then told the flight would not be leaving. They were transferred to hotels and the flight has been rescheduled for later today.
Two more charter rescue flights are expected to leave by the end of the week, the Government said.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The UK Government charter flight was not able to depart from Oman yesterday as planned due to technical issues. The flight is now expected to depart later today.”
Border Security Minister Alex Norris told Sky News this morning: “There have been a number of commercial flights that have gone yesterday. We have chartered a flight out of Oman that wasn’t able to leave last night for operational reasons.
“We expect that to be leaving today. We expect there to be multiple more flights following that.
“I know people are feeling stressed, our people are on the ground, including at the airport, helping to support them through that.
“We’ve helped them make sure they’ve found hotel rooms that we paid for to support them through that process. I know it’s frustrating, but these things obviously are fast moving and do take a little time to stand up.”
The Government says more than 130,000 Britons have registered for assistance after airspace closures in the region led to flight cancellations. More than 1,000 have now returned.
Meanwhile, MSC Cruise is launching rescue flights for passengers currently on its ship MSC Euribia, which is currently in Dubai.
MSC said: “MSC Cruises has been working on the safest and quickest way to repatriate our guests and has taken decisive action to accelerate this by launching a dedicated flight operation that currently includes five charter flights with the first flight planned to depart today, Thursday 5 March. These flights would see close to 1,000 guests leave the region by Saturday.
“In parallel, MSC Cruises is pursuing every available pathway for the remaining guests including commercial flights, further charter options and coordinated government-assisted solutions.”
