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El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing permission

Repatriation flights were halted following a violent incident on a Flydubai aircraft.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Nach einem gewaltsamen Vorfall an Bord hat die Fluggesellschaft Flydubai ihre Flüge von und nach Israel vorerst ausgesetzt. Foto: Jamal Awad/dpa

What this story says

  • El Al cancelled repatriation flights for Israelis from Dubai.
  • The UAE revoked landing permission for El Al flights.
  • Flydubai suspended its flights to and from Israel after a cockpit incident.
  • Israeli media reported over 10,000 Israelis were stranded abroad.

Who covered it

Left 8%(1)Centre 25%(3)Right 67%(8)

Percentages are shares of the 12 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 18 of the 30 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

61/100

Hype

41/100

30 sources · methodology

El Al cancelled repatriation flights for Israelis from Dubai on Friday. The Israeli airline stated that the United Arab Emirates had revoked landing permission for its flights. El Al had planned two flights from Dubai that day. The airline intends to offer flights from Sunday onwards, but Israeli media reported these were already fully booked. Other Israeli airlines, Arkia and Israir, were also expected to bring Israelis back.

The cancellation followed Flydubai's suspension of its flights to and from Israel. This suspension was a response to a violent incident on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. During the flight, a co-pilot attacked the captain. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after the assailant was subdued. A second crew, travelling in the cabin, took control of the aircraft. Israeli media reported that more than 10,000 Israelis were stranded in Dubai and other locations, intending to fly home via Dubai.

Disagreement on landing permissions

Volksfreund.de and Saarbruecker-Zeitung.de reported that while Israeli airlines, including El Al, had received landing permission from the Emirates, El Al could not offer its flights on Friday. Other reports stated that the UAE had revoked landing permission for El Al. For example, Free Malaysia Today News reported El Al stating Emirati authorities had not given landing permission for the two special repatriation flights. Republic World and Latestly also reported the UAE revoked landing approvals.

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated reports mentioned the number of Israelis stranded abroad. None of the centre-rated reports mentioned the identity or nationality of the co-pilot involved in the Flydubai incident. None of the right-rated reports mentioned that Israeli airlines had received landing permission, nor did they mention the Israeli government's assessment of the incident as a possible attempted jihadist terror attack.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 1 time, most recently on 2 Oct 2026, 08:30, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

1 rated outlet

  • The single left-rated report, a digest from Zeit Online, stated that El Al postponed return flights for Flydubai passengers. It provided no further details on the reasons for the cancellation or the incident on the Flydubai flight.

Centre

3 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated reports, including full reports from Volksfreund.de and Saarbruecker-Zeitung.de, focused on El Al's cancellation of repatriation flights due to the UAE revoking landing permission. They detailed the incident on the Flydubai flight, noting the co-pilot attacked the captain and the plane landed in Saudi Arabia. These reports also mentioned that over 10,000 Israelis were stranded. Volksfreund.de and Saarbruecker-Zeitung.de included that Israeli airlines had received landing permission but El Al could not operate its flights on Friday. They also noted that Israel's government considered the incident a possible attempted jihadist terror attack.

Right

8 rated outlets

  • The right-rated reports, primarily digests, highlighted El Al's cancellation of repatriation flights for Israelis from Dubai. They frequently mentioned the UAE revoking landing approval as the reason. Many of these reports also noted that Flydubai had suspended its flights to and from Israel following the cockpit violence and that 10,000 Israelis were stranded abroad. Some digests, such as those from Republic World, Latestly, and aninews.in, mentioned international investigators probing the FlyDubai cockpit attack and noted the co-pilot was Omani. Latestly and aninews.in also mentioned Captain Smit Machchhar and concerns over potential Iranian links.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing…?
Of the 12 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 8% are rated left, 25% are rated centre, 67% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 30. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 12 rated outlets on this story, 8% are rated left, 25% are rated centre, 67% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing… biased?
El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing permission is one event reported by 30 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which outlets covered El Al cancels Dubai flights for Israelis after UAE revokes landing…?
30 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why did El Al cancel its flights from Dubai?
El Al cancelled its repatriation flights for Israelis from Dubai because the United Arab Emirates revoked the airline's landing permission. This decision followed Flydubai suspending its own flights to Israel due to a violent incident in its cockpit.
What happened on the Flydubai flight?
On a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, a co-pilot attacked the captain. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after the assailant was subdued. A second crew member took control of the plane.
How many Israelis were affected by the flight cancellations?
Israeli media reported that more than 10,000 Israelis were stranded in Dubai and other locations as a result of the flight cancellations and suspensions.

Read it at the source

30 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

1

Centre

3

Right

8

Not rated

18
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How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

El Al Dubai flights cancelled | MediaBias News