Algeria Closes Its Airspace to Every UAE-Registered Aircraft After Cutting Ties

Algeria closed its airspace to all civil and military aircraft registered in the United Arab Emirates at midnight on September 11, 2026, hours after cutting diplomatic relations with the Gulf state. The only exception covers UAE commercial flights to and from Algiers airport, which may continue until the end of 2026.

Algeria’s Ministry of National Defense announced the ban on September 10 in a statement on its website, TSA Algérie reported.

Earlier that day, the foreign ministry said it was severing ties “after exhausting all avenues” to preserve them and gave the UAE ambassador 48 hours to leave, Euronews reported. It named no specific trigger, though President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has repeatedly accused the UAE of destabilizing Libya, Mali and Sudan.

The Algiers exemption covers flights that barely exist

The carve-out for Algiers is largely symbolic. No other UAE airline flies to Algeria, and AeroTime reported, citing FlightAware data, that Emirates’ last Dubai to Algiers flight operated in March 2026.

That route was already ending. Algeria moved in February to terminate its 2013 air services agreement with the UAE, and Emirates said then that its last scheduled flight, EK757, would leave Algiers on February 3, 2027, Gulf News reported.

The defense ministry’s exemption runs only to the end of 2026, which it called the end date of “the contract.” Algerian authorities have not said which contract they meant.

The real cost is overflight

Under Article 1 of the 1944 Chicago Convention, every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory. Flying over a country is a permission, and Algeria has now withdrawn it from an entire national fleet rather than a single airline.

That reaches every UAE carrier, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai and Air Arabia, Paddle Your Own Kanoo noted. The affected services it named include Emirates’ and Etihad’s daily flights to Casablanca, Etihad’s seasonal Abu Dhabi to Malaga route and UAE flights to Lisbon.

All of them fly west from the Gulf toward Morocco and Iberia. With Algeria off-limits, the likely alternative is to track farther north over the Mediterranean, which adds distance, fuel and flight time.

It is not the only airspace question UAE carriers are managing. In August, Emirates and flydubai resumed flying over Iran while Europe’s aviation regulator still advised against it.

Algeria has done this before

The move follows the playbook Algeria used against Morocco. Algiers cut diplomatic ties with Rabat on August 24, 2021, then closed its airspace to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft on September 22, 2021.

Royal Air Maroc said the impact was small, ch-aviation reported at the time, with flights on around 15 routes taking a slightly longer path over the Mediterranean. UAE carriers now face the same kind of detour.

The UAE’s foreign ministry responded that it values its relations with all countries and hopes the decision will be temporary, “in a way that preserves the fraternal bonds” between the two peoples, Gulf News reported. Algeria has not said what would lead it to reopen its airspace.