Dubai’s airport authority says it authorised a limited number of flights as hundreds of thousands remain stranded.

The United Arab Emirates has resumed a limited number of flights amid ongoing travel chaos across the region, prompted by the joint war by the United States and Israel on Iran.

Dubai’s airport authority said on Monday that it had authorised a “small number” of flights to operate from Dubai International airport, the world’s busiest gateway for international passengers, and Dubai World Central airport.

The authority said that passengers should not make travel plans unless they had been contacted directly by their airline with a confirmed departure time.

Dubai-based Emirates announced the resumption of a “limited” number of flights on Monday evening, and said that customers with earlier bookings would take priority.

Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, said that commercial flights would remain suspended until Wednesday, but that some “repositioning, cargo and repatriation flights” could take place subject to operational and safety approvals.

At least 16 Etihad Airways flights departed from Abu Dhabi on Monday to destinations including London, Amsterdam, Moscow and Riyadh, according to the flight tracking website Flightradar24.

At least two Emirates flights that departed from Dubai landed in India’s Mumbai and Chennai early on Tuesday morning, according to Flightradar24.

Later on Tuesday morning, two Etihad flights bound for Abu Dhabi were diverted to Muscat, Oman, and an Emirates flight headed for Dubai turned back towards Mumbai, according to the flight tracker.

“An Iran-conflict-driven disruption is typically more geographically concentrated, but it can still be severe, because it affects some of the world’s most important east-west corridors and creates rapid knock-on effects,” Tony Stanton, consultant director of Strategic Air in Australia, told Al Jazeera.

Countries including Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain have closed their airspace amid US-Israeli attacks on Iran, and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on US allies in the region, bringing travel across the Middle East to a shuddering halt.

More than 11,000 flights in and out of the region have been cancelled since the start of the conflict on Saturday, according to aviation data firm Cirium, prompting governments to consider plans for repatriating their citizens.

On Monday, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul said that Berlin would send chartered planes to Saudi Arabia and Oman to evacuate “particularly vulnerable” people who are unable to get home.

Stanton, the aviation analyst, said that the airline sector could face a lasting impact if the conflict drags beyond a few weeks, particularly if key routes become unviable and insurers and regulators raise the costs of operating.

“At that point, you can see route maps ‘reset’ – some services suspended indefinitely, hubs losing connection banks, and traffic shifting to alternative routings, or alternative hubs, that are perceived as lower-risk and more reliable,” he said.