LONDON, March 4 — The airline and tourism industries scrambled to deal with the fallout from the escalating US and Israeli air war against Iran, while governments rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East following the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights in recent days.

Major Gulf hubs including Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, remained closed or severely restricted for a fourth day, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. According to Flightradar24, some 21,300 flights have been cancelled at seven major airports including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi since the strikes started.

The attacks have upended travel across a growing region with several thriving business hubs that are trying to diversify away from oil-dominated economies. The turmoil also narrows an already-slim flight corridor for long-haul flights between Europe and Asia, complicating operations for global air carriers.

Stranded travellers across the Gulf rushed to secure seats on a limited number of repatriation flights as governments moved to bring passengers home even as explosions tore through Tehran and Beirut. Emirates, flydubai and Etihad have been operating a limited number of flights since Monday, mostly to repatriate stranded passengers.

“It’s pretty well the biggest shutdown we’ve seen certainly since the Covid pandemic,” said Paul Charles, CEO of luxury travel consultancy PC Agency, adding that beyond passenger disruption the cargo impact would run to “billions of dollars.”

Many passenger airlines also move cargo in their aircraft bellies, resulting in disruptions to air freight. Cargo specialist FedEx said by email it was using “contingency measures” it did not describe in the Middle East, after saying earlier in the day that it had resumed pickup and delivery services in the region where possible.

Emergency evacuations

The United Arab Emirates government said 60 flights had taken off, operating in dedicated emergency air corridors. The next phase will be operating more than 80 flights.

The United States is securing military and charter flights to evacuate Americans from the Middle East, a US State Department official said on X on Tuesday, adding that it was in contact with nearly 3,000 US citizens. The department was under fire from US lawmakers who said the Trump administration should have advised people to leave before the attacks started.

Delta Air Lines said on Tuesday it paused New York-Tel Aviv flights through March 22 because of the conflict and was offering rebooking options and a travel waiver for affected customers through March 31.

Demand for alternatives to Gulf airlines has surged, with bookings and ticket prices jumping on routes like Hong Kong-London, Reuters’ checks showed on Tuesday. Should the conflict drag on, it could cost the Middle East billions in tourism dollars, analysts estimate.

“We can’t get home, we can’t go back to work, we can’t get the kids back to school,” said Tatiana Leclerc, a French tourist stuck in Thailand, whose flight had been set to go via the Middle East hubs that are a key link between Asia and Europe.

In an early sign of a thaw, Virgin Atlantic said on Tuesday it would resume services as scheduled between London’s Heathrow Airport and Dubai or Riyadh.

Airline stocks slip

Shares of air carriers worldwide fell on Tuesday. The operational and financial effect varies significantly among airlines, said Karen Li, JP Morgan’s head of Asia infrastructure, industrials and transport research.

“There are important differences across carriers in terms of hedging strategy, air cargo exposure, and network rerouting capabilities that will shape the actual impact from the Middle East situation,” Li said.

Oil prices have surged amid the widening conflict. Benchmark crude is up roughly 30 per cent so far this year, threatening to lift jet fuel costs and squeeze airline profits. Most US airlines long ago gave up on hedging fuel purchases, their second-largest operating cost behind labour.

In its latest annual filing, Delta said every one-cent increase in the price of jet fuel per gallon added about US$40 million (RM158 million) to its yearly fuel bill. A 10 per cent increase would add US$1 billion to Delta’s 2026 fuel bill, Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally said.

Shares of most US carriers ended lower, with Southwest down about 1 per cent and Alaska Air off roughly 2 per cent.

In Europe, shares of Wizz Air, British Airways owner IAG, Lufthansa and Air France KLM ended down 5 per cent to 8 per cent.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Reuters the airline was hedged for the next 12 months at about US$67 a barrel and that the recent fluctuations would not impact the business. Its stock fell 2.2 per cent on Tuesday.

Qantas Airways CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline has “pretty good” fuel hedging but the spike in oil prices was significant for the industry. The Australian airline’s shares fell 1.8 per cent.

Shares of Japan Airlines closed down 6.4 per cent, while Korean Air Lines dropped 10.3 per cent, its biggest fall since March 2020, as it resumed trading after a public holiday on Monday.

Shares of major Chinese carriers including Air China and China Southern Airlines, 1055.HK lost between 2 per cent and 4 per cent in Hong Kong and Shanghai. — Reuters 

 Malay Mail – Money