Gulf War and Airline Ops in the ME area
 

Just curious, but does anybody remember what happened in the ME during the Gulf War? I mean, to the local airlines (cancellations and/or reduced flight operation), closed airspace and approved routes, and job stability (if this word is appropriate when using ME and a contract of mutual respect in the same sentence) ...

Thanks.

gf operated very few flights. Flights were still operated but half were cancelled.

Gulf War 1 affected lots of UK charter flights going to Maldives Goa India Australia and Thailand because most Tech stopped at BAH and destinations got cancelled for abit then recovered.
Tech stops moved to SHJ and DXB.

As for Gulf War 2 (Iraq and Afghanistan War) I cannot remember what happened

Iran air 655 got shot down by US Navy.

That was in 1988. Gulf War One didn't start until 1990. :=

Gulf War 1 and EK
 

Was a young FO at EK during the first Gulf war. Flew in the penultimate inbound flight from Bombay, on 15 January 1991 with George G (RIP buddy), the night before the balloon was due to go up. Dubai airport was practically taken over the Pennsylvania National Guard - a load of KC-135 tankers were everywhere.

It was pretty tense in Dubai. No one knew how far a Scud could go. Some embassies (not mine) issued gas masks to their citizens. We were all pretty resigned to our fates and had a huge party the night the deadline for Saddam to vacate Kuwait expired. The next day we realized it was just a turkey shoot. Dubai TV went live 24/7 from that day. Before that it signed off at 2300 hours. No internet obviously so that was our sole source of news! Another world.

EK started flying about three or four days into the conflict - on January 19th I operated OMDB-LGAT-EDDF in an A310. We routed to the east and south, flying to MCT then down to the Red Sea before turning north. We were the only civilian aircraft in the sky I think. Athens was a tech stop and we returned via Iranian airspace - which wasn't closed at the time.

That was the beginning of the transformation at EK and Dubai - which was a small town with a tiny little airline. Brings back fond memories, but it was kind of scary at the time.

GF positioned all their aircraft to Muscat a few days before the deadline. All crew were told to take two weeks of clothing no matter what flight they may be operating. Cant remember the exact date as not got my logbook with me down route- but I was planned to do a double Dahran starting at 6pm. I half heartedly packed a suitcase . The first Dha return no problem- the second one, we were told that from Dha we would position the aircraft to Mct!

6 weeks later I walked back into my villa in Bah.

Air Europe went bust for many reasons ( most still untiold) but the Gulf war didn't help. On the Lgw-Bah-Goa-Bah-Lgw series, I was told by a senior Bod in Commercial that the profit margin was one GBP per head. We simply re-routed through Karachi. Crew hoolies in the Karachi Hilton were not quite the same as the hoolies in the Bahrain Hilton and AE folded some months later. I wound up on the Dole & Income Support but still can;t bring myself to blame the Gulf War , entirely .

- Bit off topic but what about the Iran/Iraq war 1980-1988 being the real GW1 ????
Then the coalition clearing Saddam out of Q8 in 1991 as GW2.
( I was a hostage for a while during the invasion but we were all home for Xmas 90 before the Shock & Awe started. I knew some of the crew from the east-bound BA 747 which landed in Q8 shortly after the invasion and never left. )
Then 2003 with USA and friends finally sorting out Saddam (but in parallel leaving a very destabilised region) as GW3.
(I was on the last BA out of Q8 westbound before that one kicked off)

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians and Iraqis died in 'my' GW1, They should not be forgotten. Saddam was 'our' man then - encouraged to take on the Mullahs after the deposition of the Shah of Iran.
And at that time there was also a missile war from Iraq directed at Iranian cities.

Maybe we'll soon see more missiles flying around the Gulf ? Hope not.