PARIS (AP) — Governments across the world scrambled to organize the return of their citizens from the Middle East on Wednesday and air traffic seemed to be picking up slightly as travel across the region remained heavily disrupted by the widening war in the region.

The first flight repatriating French citizens stranded in the Middle East landed in Paris early Wednesday as French authorities booked about 100 seats onboard for vulnerable people on a priority list, said Eleonore Caroit, the minister responsible for French Nationals Abroad.

Students also returned to Milan after being evacuated from Dubai by the Italian government. Valerio Schiavoi, a member of the World Students Connection program, said he was part of a group involved in United Nations diplomatic simulations in Dubai.

“We received the news that Iran had been bombed by USA and Israel,” he told Italian news agency LaPresse. “And as soon as we leave the room, we start to hear the sounds of military planes and so on. And the panic starts a bit. Through the window we could see missiles passing by and alarms kept sounding but we didn’t know what to do.”

With airspace closed or heavily restricted across much of the Gulf, passengers have been stranded not only in the region but also in cities far from the fighting after their connecting flights in the Middle East were canceled. More than 20,000 of the more than 36,000 flights scheduled to fly to or from the Middle East between the start of the war and Wednesday have been canceled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Data from flight-tracking service FlightAware showed there were 2,018 flight cancellations worldwide by Wednesday afternoon, down from about 3,150 on Monday. Major hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha were showing fewer cancellations of arriving and departing flights.

Oman, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have emerged as key transit points for repatriation flights evacuating foreign citizens.

The French plane departed from Muscat, Oman and made a stop in Cairo, Egypt, before touching down at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Some 180 French nationals returning from Abu Dhabi on a military aircraft and 205 others returning from Israel via Sharm el-Sheikh on a chartered flight arranged by France were expected later Wednesday.

Helping the most vulnerable

“We are focusing on a priority group — families with children, people affected by illness, old people,” Caroit told TF1 broadcaster. “Our goal is to help repatriate as quickly as possible the French people who wish to return.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said an estimated 400,000 French people were present in the region affected by the conflict, either as residents or temporarily passing through.

The United States told its citizens to leave more than a dozen countries in the region right away using any available commercial transportation. The countries include Iran and Israel, as well as Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

In Britain, the government said a chartered flight will take off from Oman late Wednesday to bring back some of the thousands of U.K. nationals in the Gulf. It said the most vulnerable will be prioritized for the first of what is expected to be a series of flights.

The Foreign Office said more than 130,000 British nationals in the Middle East have registered their presence with the government since the conflict broke out, though not all are trying to leave. Many are in the UAE, and the government has advised against trying to travel overland to Oman.

Scrambling for plane tickets

Commercial airlines were starting to resume some flights, with Etihad, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic due to operate flights from the UAE to London on Wednesday.

But scores of travelers have struggled to find a way home. Li Qian, a 44-year-old tourist from Hangzhou, has been stuck in Abu Dhabi with her family after airspace closures disrupted their return flight to China. She said she received repeated missile alerts on her mobile phone and saw smoke rising near areas they had visited.

“It was frightening ... We just want to get home as soon as possible,” she said, adding that she worried about her mother’s high blood pressure medication and her child’s return to school.

Thousands of miles away in the Indonesian resort island Bali, about 6,000 people were stranded because their flights to Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi were canceled, officials said. Many of those affected were tourists from Europe or the U.S. trying to fly long-haul via those Middle Eastern airports.

Indonesian immigration authorities issued emergency stay permits and waived overstay fines for stranded foreign nationals.

Agnes Chen Pun, a Hong Kong expatriate who moved with her family to Dubai last year, said she struggled to find plane tickets to leave the region. She moved first to a resort in Fujairah, then to a desert resort near Sharjah amid fears of potential attacks and local fires.

“We were so nervous, so anxious,” said Chen, a partner at Asia Bankers Club, a Hong Kong- and Dubai-based investment company.

She said she considered a 13-seat private jet costing $268,000 — but ultimately secured commercial tickets for around $2,200 per person to Singapore. Despite the disruption, Chen said she plans to return to the UAE once the situation stabilizes.

“I think the scare, the fears, will be short-term,” she said.

Ireland welcomes flight from Dubai to Dublin

Ireland’s foreign minister said Emirates airlines would operate a flight from Dubai to Dublin on Wednesday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee welcomed the development as the government tried to help some of its estimated 22,000 to 23,000 Irish citizens in the Middle East return home. The Irish government also plans to charter a flight for about 280 people from Oman in the coming days.

Elsewhere, Norway’s Foreign Ministry said it was sending an “emergency team” to Dubai to reinforce the Norwegian embassy’s team helping an estimated 1,500 Norwegians registered in the city.

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Associated Press journalists Sylvia Hui, Brian Melley and Bridget Virgo in London and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.