By Lucy Craymer, Raghed Waked and Alessandro Parodi
DUBAI, March 4 (Reuters) - Stranded passengers in the Gulf states are waiting for one thing: a phone call confirming their flight home will depart.
Even then, few celebrate until the plane has taken off and cleared Emirati airspace.
"There was just this eerie feeling on the plane. Everyone was just dead quiet. No one really spoke," said Zoe Jackson, who was on one of the first flights out of Dubai on Tuesday.
She said it was not until lunch that passengers finally began to relax, sensing the ordeal might be over.
Now safely home in Britain, Jackson said she received confirmation she could fly only hours before departure, when her hotel rang at 1 a.m. to say she had to leave "now" if she wanted a seat.
Airports across the Gulf have begun operating at very reduced capacity as airlines and governments hurry to bring tens of thousands of stranded citizens and residents home amid the escalating U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Dubai, which normally handles more than 1,000 flights a day, and nearby Doha and Abu Dhabi sit at the crossroads of east‑west air travel, funnelling long-haul traffic between Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled connecting flights.
Many of the stranded passengers had expected to spend no more than a few hours on the ground and have been marooned - often without luggage - since Saturday.
Dozens of repatriation flights were due to leave Dubai on Wednesday.
EVERYONE CHEERED
Securing a seat remains uncertain.
In hotels, strangers swap updates on whether flights have been booked and the odds they will actually depart. In Facebook groups, travellers debate whether to attempt overland journeys rather than risk further cancellations at major hubs.
"The biggest decision is whether we stay put or try to cross a land border," said Deirdre Amola, an American travel blogger stranded in Dubai. "Then it's: where should I even try to fly?"
James Gaskin was flying home to Britain from India on Saturday when he got stranded in Dubai. By Wednesday, he had got as far as Istanbul, with one final leg still to Manchester.
His journey has been far from smooth.
At Mumbai, on little sleep, Gaskin found he did not have an onward flight and had to corral two travel agents and use his corporate credit card to get a seat home.
Then, after finally boarding a connecting flight in Dubai, it was delayed for more than two hours. When the plane finally began taxiing, it was turned around and delayed again.
"When we got out of UAE airspace, everyone kind of cheered," Gaskin said, adding he felt guilty when so many people were still unable to get out.
SIX-HOUR DRIVE ACROSS THE DESERT TO RIYADH
Those stranded include Grzegorz Markiewicz and his wife Malgorzata, a Polish couple, and one of their three daughters who got stuck in Doha, Qatar, on their way back from a wedding in Australia.
They have received no update on when their flight might depart.
Now they are considering a more than six-hour drive across the desert to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where some fellow hotel guests have already headed in hopes of flying out.
"We are waiting to hear what they're going to say about the road, about safety on the road," Malgorzata said. "And then we will decide."
(Reporting by Raghed Waked and Lucy Craymer in Dubai, Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk, Imad Creidi and Justyna Pawlak in Doha and Joanna Plucinska in London;Editing by Josephine Mason and Gareth Jones)
