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Sheree, a mother from New South Wales, found herself anxiously waiting at the arrivals terminal, eager for her son’s return. Her son’s journey to Rome took an unexpected turn, leaving him stranded in Dubai.
“It’s been extremely nerve-wracking, quite stressful, and incredibly worrying,” Sheree shared with 9News reporter Madi Scott.
“On the ground, it was terrifying for him. They were confined to their motels due to shrapnel falling from intercepted drones and bombs. He was really stressed,” she explained.
Throughout the four-day ordeal, Sheree stayed connected with her son via FaceTime, enduring several tense moments.
“While we were talking, he suddenly said, ‘Mum, I have to go, there are bombs going off,’ and the noise was really loud,” she recounted.
“But he’s coming home, he’s coming home,” she added.
Sheree drove about three hours from Port Stephens to be at the airport tonight.
“It’s been three hours and a few wrong turns in the night-time but I’m here … it’s going to be fantastic.”
Some 200 passengers were on board the A388, including a group of students from Barker College, who were greeted with a rousing welcome in T1 arrivals.
More than 100 people waited at the arrivals gate with flowers and posters aplenty, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
EK414 was one of a number of flights that departed Dubai International Airport after the United Arab Emirates hub reopened two terminals for limited services on Tuesday.
The airport is prioritising departures when it’s safe to do so after it was struck by missile debris over the weekend, as Iran continues retaliatory strikes on US bases across the region.
Emirates, Dubai’s national carrier, isn’t the only one resuming commercial flights, with Virgin Atlantic, SriLankan Airlines, Air India and flydubai also taking passengers out of the city.
In addition to the A388 to Sydney, passengers were able to depart for London, Manchester, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Moscow, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Budapest, New Delhi and Mumbai but dozens of flights were still cancelled.
All passengers with flights booked out of Dubai are being advised not to travel to the airport until they have received a confirmed departure time from their airline.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong is encouraging all Australians, be it tourists or expats, who are looking to leave the region to rely on commercial flights at this stage with no repatriation flights to help stranded citizens confirmed as yet.
Repatriation flights are “one of the contingencies we always look at” Wong said before insisting commercial flights are currently the fastest way to get the large volume of Australians safely out of the Middle East.
The federal government estimates there are about 20,000 Australians in the UAE and another 115,000 more in the broader Middle East region.
Qantas, which often codeshares with Emirates, said it would operate a one-off additional A380 service from Sydney to London via Singapore this weekend, to transport almost 500 stranded passengers looking for a way to get to Europe and the UK, The Age reported.
The carrier also announced that as a result of the change in flightpath due to closed airspaces across the Middle East, the previously direct Perth to London flight would make a refuelling stop in Singapore.
“We are doing everything we can to support our customers who are booked to travel on these airlines and need to change their travel plans,” Qantas said.
“We are communicating with these customers directly.
“We also stand ready to support Australians in the region and remain in close contact with the Australian government.”
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