A flight chartered by the UK government to bring back some Britons stranded in the Middle East did not depart on Wednesday as planned.

Problems with getting passengers on board meant the plane, which had been due to leave Oman's capital Muscat, stayed grounded, according to Home Office minister Alex Norris.

He told the BBC he did not know what time the flight would now leave on Thursday after its delay.

Thousands of British nationals remain stuck in the Middle East since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday and retaliatory strikes by Iran across the Middle East.

More than 130,000 Britons in the region have registered for updates from the UK government.

Norris told BBC Breakfast more flights for Britons were expected in the coming days, with the Foreign Office confirming two additional chartered flights would depart by the end of the week.

However, he was unable to confirm whether these would also be departing from Oman, or another location.

With regards the delayed flight, he told LBC: "It didn't take off because there are operational reasons... about getting passengers on board, and it wasn't able to happen in the time that it had to happen."

Those eligible for the government flights are being asked to pay for their seat. When announcing the initial flight, the Foreign Office said it would prioritise the most vulnerable people, and that only British nationals, their spouse or partner, and children under 18 would be offered a seat.

Foreign Office officials said 138,000 British nationals in the Gulf had registered their presence, of whom 112,000 were in the United Arab Emirates.

Following the missile strikes across the Middle East, airspace remains severely restricted, with flights completely or partially grounded over Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria, the UAE and Israel.

The government said it is the largest consular challenge since the Covid pandemic in 2020.

Britons unable to secure a seat on the charter flight have been looking for alternative ways home.

Sam Sahabandu, 47, from Northamptonshire, who got stuck in Muscat after his flight back to London from Sri Lanka was diverted, was due to be on a Qatar Airways flight to Heathrow on Thursday afternoon local time.

Sahabandu said Muscat Airport appeared "relatively peaceful" despite the disruption, and some other passengers were being routed through other cities such as Rome to get back to the UK.

Poppy Cleary, 27, was one of those stranded in Muscat after her flight from Singapore was diverted to Oman on Saturday. She told BBC Your Voice that she registered and paid for a charter flight, but never heard back.

She said the British Embassy in Oman told her the first flight was not for people who had been diverted to Muscat, but instead for people who had come to Oman from "unsafe countries" including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.

Cleary said she was "relieved" to eventually secure a place on the Qatar Airways flight leaving Oman on Thursday, telling the BBC after boarding that it did not appear to be full, with a "fair amount of empty seats".

One woman selected for a space on the government charter flight said she had to decline her spot as her parents - who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK, but are Sri Lankan passport holders - were not eligible.

Erasha Amarasinghe, a 39-year-old doctor from Northampton, told BBC Your Voice: "I am travelling with my disabled mother and my father who has cognitive impairment […] I feel stuck as I cannot leave my parents behind."

Meanwhile, there were emotional scenes at Edinburgh Airport on Wednesday night as some 300 passengers landed on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

Andrew Crow and Jean Weir, from Glasgow, had checked out of the Fairmont The Palm hotel in Dubai just hours before it was caught in a large explosion on Saturday.

"The flight was a long one on the way back, I can assure you, but we are relieved to be home," Andrew said.

Victoria Cameron, from Larkhall, had been travelling home from New Zealand via Dubai when flights in the Middle East were grounded.

"The staff said 'run, run, leave your suitcases'," she told the BBC. "Our phones were going off, saying 'emergency alert'. We were crying, we were shaking."

The Foreign Office said it would "continue to work with airlines to find more routes for people to return home", and has advised against all but essential travel to the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.

Meanwhile, the UK government continues to set out its wider response to the crisis in the Middle East, including deploying a warship to the area close to Cyprus.

The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon will be sent to the Mediterranean, possibly next week, to bolster defences around a British military base at Akrotiri after it was hit by an Iranian drone.

What is happening with airports and airlines in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Oman?

On Wednesday, Emirates suspended all flights to and from Dubai until just before midnight on 7 March.

Etihad Airways has said its scheduled commercial flights to and from Abu Dhabi remain suspended until early on 6 March.

British Airways operated a flight from Muscat early on Thursday, and is operating two more flights from Oman to Heathrow on Friday and Saturday. Both flights are fully booked, the airline has since said.

It added: "We remain unable to operate flights from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv."

In an update on X, Qatar Airways said it would be operating a "limited number" of relief flights from Thursday for passengers across the region.

Airports in Cyprus have also been hit with disruption following a drone attack on the UK military base RAF Akrotiri on Sunday, with EasyJet, TUI, Lufthansa, Cyprus Airways and Wizz Air among the airlines affected.