Race to evacuate Britons from Middle East as government to lay on emergency charter flight

Ms Cooper said a flight will take off from Muscat, Oman, “in the coming days”.

She told the House of Commons 130,000 British nationals have signed up to the Register Your Presence programme in the Middle East as of this morning.

The conflict between Iran and the US and its allies has caused widespread airspace closures in the Middle East, sparking major disruption to flights.

A handful of flights will bring British nationals stranded in the Middle East back to the UK on Tuesday, but the majority of departures from the region remain cancelled.

Read more: Gas and oil prices soar and queues grow at UK pumps as Iran warns it will ‘set fire’ to ships in Strait of Hormuz

Read more: Armed Forces Minister blasts ‘utterly irrational’ Iran amid 'most fractious and unstable geopolitical time in 24 years'

Ms Cooper told MPs it is “a very fast-moving situation” with “unprecedented numbers of British nationals in the region”.

She added: “As of this morning, 130,000 British nationals have now signed up to the Register Your Presence Programme, which is vital to the Foreign Office’s ability to know where people are and to provide updates and advice.

“Members will know that in many of these countries, the airspace is still closed, but I am in close contact with my counterparts across the region, speaking again yesterday with the UAE on the excellent support that they are providing and some of the departures that they are now securing as this becomes viable.

“We are also working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat for British nationals, with priority for vulnerable nationals, and a Government charter flight will fly from Muscat in the coming days, prioritising vulnerable nationals, but British nationals in Oman must wait to be contacted by the Foreign Office regarding these options, and we will continue to work 24/7 on supporting British nationals in the region.”

About half a million passengers per day use airports in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi, which are vital hubs for travel between Europe and the continents of Asia and Australia.

UK-based aviation consultant John Strickland said it could take weeks to clear the backlog of passengers.

He said: “It’s a bit uncertain (when that will happen) because of course it will depend on how long the airspace restrictions remain in place.

“But factoring in the high volumes of normal daily traffic and the high capacity of aircraft such as the A380 and the Boeing 777, plus the fact that other flights covering similar routes operate at high occupancy, then it will certainly be quite a period of time which would likely run into weeks.”

Emirates plans to operate two flights to Heathrow and one each to Gatwick and Manchester.

At least some of these flights will be operated by the airline’s A380 jets, which can each carry up to 615 passengers depending on how they are configured.

Emirates usually operates 146 weekly flights to the UK, which is the equivalent of about 21 per day.

Etihad Airways has scheduled one UK flight on Tuesday, from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow.

This is with a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, which has 336 passenger seats.

Qatar Airways – which usually serves Heathrow and Gatwick from Qatar – said on Tuesday morning that its operations remain suspended because of the closure of Qatari airspace.

British Airways cancelled its timetabled flights to Heathrow from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha and Dubai on Tuesday.