More Australians are returning from the Middle East despite air space briefly being closed due to renewed missile strikes in the region.
A flight from Dubai to Melbourne with 151 Australians on board is due to arrive on Sunday afternoon, while another flight will land in Sydney later in the evening.
A further two flights are expected to leave Dubai, pending the United Arab Emirates’ airspace remaining open.
The departures follow Dubai’s international airport being briefly closed on Saturday night, Australian time, after the latest round of Iranian missile and drone attacks in the region.
More than 1500 Australians have arrived home on flights from the UAE since international services resumed.
Australians have also been bussed out of the Qatari capital Doha, the base for Virgin Australia’s partner Qatar Airways, to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
Three buses carrying 92 Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families have departed.
Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said commercial flights were still the best way for Australians to leave the Middle East.
But he admitted the cost of some flights might be a factor in people not being able to return, with some planes departing with large numbers of empty seats.
“We’ve seen that some of those flights haven’t been full. We’ve seen the cost of tickets,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
“We’re pretty disappointed to be honest and we’ve made that disappointment known to the airlines.”
“The first thing is to maintain your booking on your flight. If you’ve already got one booked, then they shouldn’t be able to jack up the prices.”
Some 115,000 Australians were in the Middle East when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran returned fire in retaliation across the region.
Australian Travel Industry Association chief executive Dean Long said flights leaving with empty seats should not be a concern.
“The good news is there’s not a huge number of people that we should consider stuck in the transit hub,” he told AAP.
“The people that are primarily in the Middle East now are choosing to be in the Middle East because that’s where they live.”
Meanwhile, federal government ministers have downplayed the presence of three Australian defence personnel on a US nuclear submarine when it struck an Iranian ship near Sri Lanka.
Mr Thistlethwaite said it was a normal rotation for the defence crews as part of the AUKUS security pact, but would not say how senior the personnel were.
Opposition frontbencher Claire Chandler said the coalition was supportive of the role Australian defence crews were playing.
“It’s fair to expect that our Australian Navy personnel would be working with US counterparts, particularly within the context of AUKUS,” she said.
Source: Michael West Read More