Your Flight Home Was Cancelled. Here Is Exactly What the Airline Owes You, Hour by Hour, Under UAE Law.
The message arrives while you are still at work. Sometimes it is an SMS, sometimes it is the airline app going quiet and then, hours later, showing a different flight number. Your flight home is cancelled.
For thousands of expatriate residents in the UAE this month, that message has landed in the worst possible week — annual leave already approved, family already told, and in a lot of cases a connecting ticket from Kochi, Karachi, Kathmandu or Manila that nobody is going to refund out of kindness.
Here is the part almost nobody knows until they are standing at the service desk at two in the morning: the UAE has a written, binding rule about what the airline must do for you. It is not a customer-service courtesy. It is a regulation, it has clause numbers, and it says exactly what you get and after how many hours.
It also says something most people assume the opposite of — and getting that wrong is what turns a bad night into an argument you cannot win.
What is actually happening right now
As of Friday, 21 August 2026, UAE airports are open and operating, but schedules across the Gulf remain unsettled as the US–Iran standoff continues into a third consecutive week of disruption.
The picture this morning:
- Etihad Airways cancelled EY608 from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi after unplanned industrial action at Ben Gurion International Airport, and has cancelled its Bahrain services EY641–EY648 through 21 August.
- Emirates cancelled EK835 and EK837 to Bahrain.
- Air Arabia cancelled 3L020 from Abu Dhabi to Kuwait, and G9068, G9124 and G9107 from Sharjah to Kuwait and Bahrain.
- flydubai is operating its Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi routes, with a number of individual cancellations including FZ661, FZ619 and FZ771.
- International carriers are routing around the region. KLM continues to avoid the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Israel, as well as parts of the Arabian Gulf.
The disruption is not only in the air. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has thinned sharply — only seven commodity vessels transited on Thursday, against 14 the day before, with no supertankers or LNG carriers recorded at all.
Emirates has told Dubai-bound passengers they can change travel dates without a change fee, an unlimited number of times, under measures introduced on 10 August. Fare and tax differences still apply.
The rule that governs all of this
Your entitlements are set out in the Passenger Welfare Programme (CAR-PWP), a civil aviation regulation issued by the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority. The current version is Issue 02, which has applied since 1 January 2025.
It was made under Article 4 of the UAE Civil Aviation Law (Federal Act No. 20 of 1991), which gives the GCAA authority over commercial air transport. It binds UAE operators — Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Air Arabia — and, under Subpart D, foreign operators flying here too.
The regulation is organised by what went wrong: delay in the terminal, delay on the aircraft, diversion, cancellation, denied boarding. Each one has its own clause and its own trigger.
Delayed in the terminal: the hour-by-hour rule
This is clause PWP.B.003, and it is the one you will use most often.
Between 1 and 3 hours past the scheduled departure time, the airline owes you one thing: up-to-date information on your flight status, from the operator or its representative. That is the whole entitlement. No meals, no vouchers.
Between 3 and 8 hours — and the regulation is explicit that this applies regardless of the distance of the flight — you are entitled to:
- Up-to-date flight-status information
- Free meals and refreshments, in proportion to how long you are waiting
- Appropriate means of communication
- Hotel accommodation, if you have missed your connection and the next likely connection is more than 8 hours away
More than 8 hours, and the entitlement steps up again:
- Hotel accommodation — and the regulation says it must be appropriate to how far you are from home and to the time of day
- Free meals and refreshments
- Appropriate means of communication
- Transport between the airport and the hotel
Note what that last tier means in practice. If you live in Sharjah and your flight out of DXB is delayed past eight hours overnight, the airline's obligation is calibrated to the fact that you have a home to get to. Ask.
Stuck on the aircraft: the tarmac rule
Clause PWP.B.004 covers the situation people find hardest to argue about, because you are physically on board and the door is shut.
Between 1 and 3 hours, you get status information.
Between 3 and 8 hours, you must be offered the opportunity to disembark — subject to local regulations — plus status updates, free meals and refreshments, means of communication, and a hotel if you have missed your connection.
Beyond 8 hours, the wording changes from "offered the possibility" to a requirement: passengers shall be disembarked from the aircraft, and given hotel accommodation, meals, communication and transport to the hotel.
That shift from may disembark to shall be disembarked is the single most useful sentence in the regulation, and it is worth knowing the clause number when you need it.
If your flight is cancelled outright
Clause PWP.B.006. If the operator cancels — and the regulation says this applies whether or not you have checked in — you must be:
- Informed at the earliest time practicable
- Offered care — refreshments, meals, hotel accommodation, transport to and from that accommodation, and means of communication, as appropriate
- Carried, along with your baggage, as soon as practicable on another flight where space is available — and if necessary the validity of your ticket must be extended to cover that carriage
- Offered the option of a return flight to your first point of departure, or re-routing within a reasonable period on another airline subject to availability, or by other mutually agreed means and class of carriage
Point four is the one airlines are least likely to volunteer. The regulation contemplates being re-routed on a different carrier. If your airline's own next available seat is four days out, that clause exists.
Diverted to the wrong city
Clause PWP.B.005. If your aircraft is diverted somewhere other than the planned destination, you get the same care as under the delay clauses, plus the option of a return flight to your first point of departure or re-routing to your actual destination — and the regulation says without additional cost.
Denied boarding
Clause PWP.B.002. If you are bumped, you are entitled to a return flight to your first point of departure or re-routing to your final destination, plus care as appropriate.
Two limits worth knowing. First, the airline must call for volunteers before it denies boarding to anyone against their will — that is spelled out in the guidance material at GM2. Second, the protection does not apply if you failed to comply with the carrier's own conditions on ticketing, reconfirmation, check-in or acceptability for transport. Turn up late and this clause is not yours.
The thing most expats get wrong
Here it is, and it is worth reading twice.
UAE rules require the airline to look after you. They do not require it to pay you.
There is no UAE equivalent of the European Union's EC 261 — the rule that hands you a fixed cash sum, often several hundred euros, when a flight is badly delayed or cancelled. People arrive at the desk in Dubai having read a UK or EU compensation guide, and they ask for a number that does not exist in this jurisdiction.
What CAR-PWP gives you is care and carriage: food, a bed, a phone call, a seat on the next thing flying. That is genuinely valuable and it is legally owed. It is not a payout.
There is a separate route for actual money, and it is a different argument entirely — see below.
Your money: refunds when the airline cancels
Refund rules are set by each airline, not by the welfare regulation. As reported on 18 August 2026, the position of the four UAE carriers when they cancel:
| Airline | If the airline cancels |
|---|---|
| Emirates | Rebooking or a refund, depending on circumstances. Passengers hit by airspace disruption may change dates, reroute or take a refund. |
| Etihad Airways | A full refund to the original payment method — including on a non-refundable Basic fare. Or rebook, or convert to Etihad Credit. |
| Air Arabia | Full cash refund or credit depending on circumstances, or complimentary rebooking where it cannot protect you on the next available flight. |
| flydubai | Policy for airline-initiated cancellations not specified in the reporting; passenger-initiated cancellations produce a voucher rather than cash. |
The Etihad line is the one to remember. A "non-refundable" ticket stops being non-refundable when the airline is the one that cancelled it. That is true far more often than passengers realise, and it is the single most common piece of money left on the table.
Emirates also notes that if your travel date is within the next 72 hours, changes may not be possible through Manage Your Booking — you will need to reach the airline directly.
Compensation for what it actually cost you
If the disruption cost you real, provable money — a forfeited hotel booking, a missed onward ticket, lost wages — there is a route, but it is a claim, not a tariff.
Article 357 of Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022 (the Commercial Transactions Law) makes the air carrier responsible for damage resulting from the late arrival of passengers or cargo. That is the provision that lets you claim demonstrable financial loss. International journeys may additionally be covered by the Montreal Convention.
The word doing the work is provable. Keep the boarding pass, the cancellation SMS, the hotel receipt, the replacement ticket, and any written refusal from the airline. A claim without documents goes nowhere.
How to complain, in the right order
- Complain to the airline first, in writing. This is a required step, not a suggestion. Airlines generally give a substantive response within 30 days.
- If it is unresolved, escalate to the GCAA Consumer Protection Unit. The regulator is the correct next stop, and it is free.
- Keep everything. Flight number, scheduled and actual times, every message from the airline, every receipt.
Be precise about which clause you are relying on. "You owe me a hotel" is an opinion. "This is a terminal delay exceeding eight hours under PWP.B.003(c) and I am requesting accommodation, meals and transport" is a regulation.
And your UAE visa, if you are stuck
If you are outside the country when your residency lapses, or inside it on a visit visa that ran out because there were no flights, this is the precedent to know.
On 4 March 2026, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) waived overstay fines for people who could not depart because of airspace closures and flight suspensions. It covered visit and tourist visa holders whose stay had lapsed, exit-permit holders who had exceeded their grace period, and residents who had already cancelled their permits in preparation to leave. It applied to fines incurred on or after 28 February 2026, with no announced deadline.
The authority's stated reasoning was that people's legal status should be capable of being fixed "without imposing any financial burden arising from these exceptional circumstances beyond their control."
That waiver was tied to a specific event. Do not assume one is running today. If you are affected, check your status through official ICP channels rather than relying on what a WhatsApp group is saying.
While you are there — one myth to kill. You may have read that the UAE abolished the residency grace period in February 2026 and now charges Dh50 a day from day one. The immigration authority has publicly clarified that there has been no change to overstay fines. Grace periods after a residence permit expires continue to run from 30 days to six months depending on visa category, and the standard overstay fine remains Dh50 per day. The claim circulating on visa-consultancy blogs is wrong.
The short version
- Under 3 hours, you get information and nothing else.
- 3 to 8 hours, you get fed, and a hotel only if you missed a connection and the next one is 8+ hours out.
- Over 8 hours, you get a hotel, meals and transport to it.
- Over 8 hours on the tarmac, you must be let off the aircraft.
- Cancelled, you get care, re-routing — possibly on another airline — and your ticket validity extended.
- No cash tariff exists in the UAE. Care and carriage, not compensation.
- A non-refundable ticket is usually refundable when the airline is the one that cancelled.
- Real losses are claimed under Article 357, with documents.
- Airline first in writing, then the GCAA.
Screenshot this before your next flight. The regulation is on your side; it just does not announce itself.
This article is journalism, not legal advice. Rules and airline policies change, sometimes within a day, in the current situation. Confirm your own position with your airline, with the GCAA and with ICP before acting. Corrections: [email protected].
Photographs: Emirates Boeing 777-300ER at Dubai International Airport by Kgbo (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 by Chris Olszewski (CC BY-SA 4.0), both via Wikimedia Commons. Graphic by Arab Times UAE.