Preparations are under way to bring home Irish people stranded in the Middle East

0:00Meanwhile, preparations are underway to bring home Irish people who have been stranded in the Middle East by the widespread cancellation of flights. We can get more from Owen Curry, who's editor of Travel Extra. Owen, can we talk first of all about this Emirates flight due to depart Dubai for Dublin this evening? Who's likely to be on board? Good afternoon. Yes. Emirates will have their system of prioritizing different passengers. They've already got quite a few flights out. What has happened is they've changed policy in the last 24 hours and the airports Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports are both looking at getting 48 flights an hour through. Dublin wasn't even on the list. The crew didn't even know they were flying. They got very, very short notice that the Dublin to Dubai flight took off this morning. You've got to remember, we've got passengers stranded in Dublin as well. And it looks like we may have two flights one tonight and tomorrow coming.

1:00Emirates picking the passengers, generally the ones that have been there longest, but they have a list of priority. There are medical cases, things like that. The Department of Foreign Affairs has a separate list, a separate process. They're prioritizing again, elderly medical people who need to get back. That's going to require a road journey, a complicated road journey with the border to Oman. And a charter flight, an A330 coming home. But I'd be quite confident because so many passengers on those flights are transfer passengers that the people stranded in Dubai could be got back in a couple of days if those air-colondors remain open. Doha, a different story. They still haven't opened the airport there. There's also due to be a special flight from Oman. What do you know about that? People will be transferred across, they'll be conveyed across the border. It's normally a six-hour drive. It's running at 10, 11 hours.

2:00The border is a bit messy at the moment. Brought to Oman and the Irish government has chartered an aircraft. Only 200 people affected by that. It's a drop in the ocean, but the decision was taken when the airspace in Dubai was closed. And it looked like there was no way out. It does change things considerably. That by Emirates and Essie had are both now talking about operating Dublin flights. Oman, thanks very much for bringing us up to date. Owen Curry, there, there.