Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images
- Several airlines canceled flights to the Middle East after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.
- Qatar Airways also warned of schedule changes after airspace closures led to detours.
- Rising oil prices will further cut into airline profits.
Thousands of passengers have seen their flights canceled, and many more will face longer journeys, after the conflicts in the Middle East escalated over the weekend.
Singapore Airlines, Air France, and British Airways are among the airlines to cancel flights to the likes of Dubai and Doha, Qatar, since the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.
The cities are major travel hubs. Dubai International is ranked as the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, and Qatar’s Hamad International is the 10th.
BA Flight 109 was on its way to Dubai during the strikes. Data from Flightradar24 shows it U-turned over Saudi Arabia and diverted to Zurich in a nine-hour journey.
Meanwhile, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada had started suspending some flights to the region in the days before Saturday’s attacks.
Even for those routes that haven’t faced cancellations, flights will take longer.
That’s because they can no longer fly over Israel, Iran, and Iraq, which closed their airspaces after Israel launched a missile attack on Iran on June 13.
Flightradar24 data showed that the Air France flights were taking up to an hour longer as they flew over Egypt and Saudi Arabia instead.
Qatar Airways, which is still operating flights, said in a statement on X that the situation “will require some schedule changes to strengthen the connectivity in Doha.”
Like Dubai’s Emirates, its business model counts on harnessing its geography to link destinations around the world via its home base — so longer flight times would make connections tighter for passengers.
The airline was named the world’s best at the Skytrax Awards during last week’s Paris Air Show, after CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer had to pull out to focus on “our operational responsibilities due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.”
“It feels incredibly strange not to be there,” he said in a video message. “In over a decade with our airline and airport, I’ve never missed a Skytrax ceremony.”
Longer detours will also cut into airlines’ profits by requiring more fuel.
The conflict could further raise oil prices as Iran considers closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the ocean.
Iran has suggested it could launch retaliatory strikes on US military bases in the region, which would likely force further travel disruption.
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