Can my friend extend his work visa in Thailand given the current circumstances in the Gulf and the lack of a canceled flight?

Unfortunately he’s not stuck do to flight cancellations so his best bet is to head to a neighboring country but he’ll need to make sure he cancels his WP and extension then he could possibly return on an exempt stamp or buy a visa

Surely there's nothing stopping him leaving, so doubt immigration can help. Could he fly to a nearby country and reenter visa exempt for 60 days plus 30 day extension? Meanwhile book a flight home for 3 months ahead of this.

Yes we’ve tried the embassy nothing

Pardon me if this sounds stupid but he hasn't booked a flight to UK and although there is some disruption flights are still going to the UK so how is he impacted by the gulf problem. Immigration is helping people who's flights have been cancelled not people who haven't even bothered to book flights, I really don't think he will be offed an extension. I would also think that the British Embassy doesn't have to 'help' someone that hasn't even tried to return to UK.

No

Immigration has offered „stranded” tourists generous 30-day extensions.

To be elegible, people must prove that their return flight was canceled.

However, this doesn't mean you can stop looking for available flights once the extension is granted. On the contrary, Immigration will certainly expect you to take care of this.

This particular 30-day extension isn't meant to last forever. It's designed to prevent you from overstaying your visa.

More precisely, you're given 30 days to find a replacement flight. Immigration will rightfully assume you'll be able to do so.

You can most likely only present your canceled flight ticket once when applying for the extension. It probably won't be accepted for a subsequent extension.

We should keep this in mind. Please check if immigration includes the canceled flight number in the extension stamp, as that would confirm my suspicion.

It's important to know that embassies do not issue confirmations of canceled flights. Immigration is operating under an unrealistic assumption that this is possible.

A proof that the flight was canceled should be sufficient.

Plenty airlines still operating out of Thailand and surrounding countries. There's no need for anyone to get stuck.

Has he had a flight cancelled due to the conflict?

Well its only a problem in the gulf area, not Thailand so what are the options avoiding the gulf.UAE is still having flights out. AirChina and ANA still doing Thailand to UK