DUBAI, March 17 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates

briefly closed its airspace on Tuesday in response to incoming

missile and drone threats from Iran, a second straight day of

aviation disruption after a drone caused a fire near Dubai

airport on Monday.

The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, now in its third week,

has thrown global aviation into turmoil, with flights cancelled,

rescheduled and rerouted, as most Middle East airspace remains

shut over fears of missile and drone attacks.

Many Gulf-based airlines have been operating only a fraction

of their pre-war flights, although Dubai-based Emirates has had

fewer cancellations than some others. Monday's closure caused a

sharp drop, according to data from Flightradar.com, which did

not yet have data available for Tuesday.

The war has disrupted travelvia the busy Gulf region, a key

global hub between Europe and Asia, sent fuel charges and ticket

prices surging, hit flows of goods such as critical medicines

and thrown holiday plans into disarray.

The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority said flights had

returned to normal on Tuesday after earlier announcing the

temporary airspace closure, state media agency WAM reported.

WINNERS AND LOSERS AMONG AIRLINES, HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS

The war has hit the region's huge airline groups, including

Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, flydubai and others.

Germany's Lufthansa expects the dominance of those

Gulf carriers on Asian routes to be diminished by the conflict,

its CEO Carsten Spohr told business magazine Manager Magazin in

an interview published on Tuesday.

In a signal that it could take weeks, if not months, for

Middle East airspace to return to normal, IAG-owned

British Airways extended cancellations of flights to Dubai,

Bahrain and Tel Aviv until June and is adding routes elsewhere.

The airline is adding more flights to destinations such as

Singapore and Bangkok, which it said was in response to the

conflict in the Middle East. It added that more customers were

looking for "alternative getaways" in places like the Caribbean.

"We know there is short-term demand as a result of the

situation in the Middle East," Neil Chernoff, British Airways

Chief Planning and Strategy Officer, said in a statement.

"To support customers with alternative routes from popular

destinations we have already launched additional flights, and we

will continue to monitor customer demand and add flights to our

schedule if we're able to do so."