* Iranian and Israeli air strikes continue for second day

* Middle Eastern airport hubs remain closed or restricted

* Airlines reroute or cancel flights, affecting global

schedules

* Risk of prolonged disruption from regional conflicts

* Thousands of passengers stranded in airports around the

world

* Rising oil prices another blow for airlines

(Updates to add oil prices, UAE civil aviation authority data

in paragraphs 12, 22)

By Federico Maccioni, Joe Brock and Tim Hepher

DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) - Global air travel remained

heavily disrupted on Sunday as war in Iran kept major Middle

Eastern airports including Dubai, the world's busiest

international hub, closed for a second day in one of the

sharpest aviation shocks in recent years.

Key transit airports, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE

and Doha in Qatar, were shut or severely restricted as much of

the region's airspace remained closed after U.S. and Israeli

strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The ripple effects were felt far beyond the Middle East,

with tens of thousands of passengers stranded as far as Bali,

Kathmandu and Frankfurt.

Israel said it had launched another wave of strikes on Iran

on Sunday while loud blasts were heard for a second day near

Dubai and over Doha after Iran launched retaliatory air attacks

on the neighbouring Gulf states.

Dubai International Airport sustained damage during Iran's

attacks while airports in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait were also hit.

Thousands of flights have been affected across the Middle

East, according to data on flight-tracking platform FlightAware.

Emirates, the world's largest international carrier, said it

had suspended all operations to and from its Dubai megahub until

Monday.

Qatar Airways, which has suspended all operations, said it

would provide a further update on Monday and Germany's

Lufthansa extended its suspension of flights to the

region to March 8.

Airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the UAE

and Qatar remained virtually empty, maps by Flightradar24 showed

on Sunday.

The flight-tracking service said that a new pilot bulletin

had extended the closure of Iranian airspace until at least 0830

GMT on March 3, though regional airline sources said there was

no certainty how long the conflict-related turmoil would

continue.

SHOCKWAVES FAR BEYOND THE MIDDLE EAST

The region and its airlines have become used to travel

disruption over the past few years, but such a prolonged closure

of the skies - more than 24 hours - and the shutdown of all

three major Gulf transit hubs is unprecedented, analysts said.

The Gulf is also a major intersection for air cargo, putting

further pressure on trade lanes on top of disruption at sea.

Airline executives have said that crew and pilots are now

scattered across the world, complicating the complex process of

resuming flights when airspace reopens.

Carriers around the world also face higher oil prices after

Brent crude jumped 10% to $80 a barrel over the counter on

Sunday, with analysts predicting they could climb as high as

$100.

"For everyone the main impact will come through oil prices,

which will obviously take a bump upwards," said aviation adviser

Bertrand Grabowski.

Airport closures sent shockwaves around the globe.

At Frankfurt airport on Sunday morning, Australia-bound Lara

Haenseler from Bochum, Germany, was trying to rebook after her

flight to Dubai was cancelled.

"The phone hotline is completely overloaded. We can't reach

anyone," she said.

In Bali, Indonesia, long queues snaked through I Gusti

Ngurah Rai International Airport as passengers waited to speak

to airline staff.

Travellers sat on their luggage as they waited to find out

details of their flights at Hazrat Shahjalal International

Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, while departure boards in

Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport showed a long list

of cancelled flights.

About 4,000 flights had been due to land in the region on

Sunday, said analytics firm Cirium. The UAE's civil aviation

authority said that it had assisted about 20,200 travellers on

Saturday.

Dubai and neighbouring Doha sit at the crossroads of

east-west air travel, funnelling long-haul traffic between

Europe and Asia through tightly scheduled networks of connecting

flights. With those hubs idle, aircraft and crews remained

stranded out of position, disrupting airline schedules

worldwide.

"It's the sheer volume of people and the complexity," said

UK-based aviation analyst John Strickland.

"It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all

over place."

Airlines across Europe, Asia and the Middle East cancelled

or rerouted flights to avoid closed or restricted airspace,

lengthening journeys and driving up fuel costs.

The disruption has been intensified by the loss of Iranian

and Iraqi overflight routes, which had grown more important

since the Russia-Ukraine war forced airlines to avoid both

countries' airspace.

The Middle East airspace closures were squeezing airlines

into narrower corridors, with fighting between Pakistan and

Afghanistan adding a further risk, said Ian Petchenik,

communications director at Flightradar24.

"The risk of protracted disruption is the main concern from

a commercial aviation perspective," Petchenik said.

"Any escalation in the conflict between Pakistan and

Afghanistan that results in the closure of airspace would have

drastic consequences for travel between Europe and Asia."

Highlighting the scale of the disruption, Air India

cancelled its flights on Sunday departing from Delhi, Mumbai and

Amritsar for major cities in Europe and North America.