Passengers on Dubai-Dublin flight 'never so happy to be home'

One of the first passengers to arrive in Dublin from Dubai has said she has "never been so happy to be home".

Gina Quinn was one of about 400 people who landed in the Irish capital on Wednesday.

The Emirates flight was the first in a number of days after the United States-Israeli attacks on Iran led to the closure of nearly all airspace in the Middle East.

A second flight directly to Dublin from Dubai is scheduled for Thursday, with a further 400 passengers on it.

Quinn was on a business trip to Delhi in India with a colleague and stopped in Dubai for a connecting flight back to Dublin.

She said it was supposed to be a "quick transit" but soon became "chaotic".

"Getting information about when you might be able to fly home was nearly impossible. The airlines were inundated," she said.

Her husband Kevin Murphy was there to collect her at the airport.

He said he was "delighted to have her home," and "life can go on now".

Earlier in Belfast businessman Stuart Carson arrived home via Birmingham and said he was relieved to be back after his hotel in Dubai was set on fire by a drone.

A second flight directly to Dublin from Dubai is scheduled for Thursday, with a further 400 passengers on it.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said she expected that would be added to with more flights in the near future.

She said while not all passengers on Wednesday's flight to Dublin would be Irish citizens "a huge proportion" would be.

McEntee said hundreds of Irish citizens would be getting home as a result of a combination of commercial and chartered flights in the coming days.

She added that an Irish government chartered flight was due to leave Oman for Dublin "at the end of the week", carrying about 300 people.

McEntee previously asked for "everyone's patience as our most vulnerable citizens are contacted in this first phase of our response to this crisis".

The minister said the Irish government would "continue to offer consular assistance to all citizens in the region".

"All citizens should register with the appropriate embassy if they have not already done so and continue to follow our embassy social media accounts for the latest updates," he said.

So far 25,000 Irish citizens in the region have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs - 2,000 of them have said they want to leave.

Conflict has spread across the Middle East following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, in which the country's supreme leader was killed.

Tehran has retaliated with a wave of attacks across the region.

Meanwhile, thousands of British nationals stranded in the Middle East are also returning home on Wednesday as airlines increase their flights from the region.

British citizens stuck in the Middle East have told the BBC there has been a lack of information about available routes to travel home.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs on Tuesday that the "safety and security" of British nationals were a "top priority".

She told the House of Commons that a government charter flight would fly from Muscat in Oman in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals.

The government is also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, she said, adding that Britons "must wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office regarding these options".

Sandra Corkin, managing director of Oasis Travel, said that the company were dealing with dozens of holidaymakers affected by the conflict.

Corkin told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme most of its passengers were actually further away in places like Australia or New Zealand but that their flights were connecting through the Middle East.

She said the first plan had been to get people onto direct flights through London or Europe but that became increasingly difficult.

She said some passengers had flown to China and then to London, but it had been an "incredibly difficult few days".