The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has begun to cast a long shadow over the global aviation industry. While major Gulf aviation hubs such as Dubai and Doha are directly affected, the repercussions are now being felt across the world as some airlines raise ticket prices citing sharply rising fuel costs.
As of Wednesday, several airports in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Israel Qatar remain closed while Jordan had its airports partially closed. United Arab Emirates has been attacked repeatedly. However, as per BBC reporting, Dubai International Airport and Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport, have slowly resumed operations. Emirates airlines has pledged to resume its full operations soon, a report in Travelers Today said.
Several international carriers, including Australia’s Qantas Airways, Scandinavia’s SAS, and Air New Zealand, have already announced fare increases. These airlines attribute the hikes to a sudden surge in jet fuel prices triggered by the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Jet fuel prices, which hovered between $85 and $90 per barrel before the recent US-Israeli strikes on Iran, have climbed dramatically, and are feared to rocket to around $150 to $200 per barrel. Air New Zealand, the country’s flag carrier, said the steep rise in fuel prices had forced it to suspend its financial outlook for 2026 due to the uncertainty created by the conflict.
The war has also disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most crucial oil export routes. As a result, global oil prices have surged, unsettling the travel industry, pushing airfares on several routes to record levels and raising fears of a prolonged slowdown in global travel that could eventually ground aircraft.
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“Increases of this magnitude make it necessary to react in order to maintain stable and reliable operations,” an SAS spokesperson said, adding that the airline had introduced a “temporary price adjustment.”
The Scandinavian carrier noted that due to volatile market conditions it had already revised its fuel hedging policy last year and currently had no fuel consumption hedged for the next 12 months, according to a report by Reuters.
Some airlines, particularly in Asia and Europe — including Lufthansa and Ryanair — have hedged part of their fuel requirements at fixed prices to protect themselves from sudden market fluctuations. Finnair, which had hedged more than 80 per cent of its first-quarter fuel purchases, warned that if the conflict continued, the industry might face not only higher prices but also potential shortages of jet fuel.
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“A prolonged crisis could affect not only the price of fuel but also its availability, at least temporarily,” a Finnair spokesperson said, adding that no such shortage had yet materialized. Kuwait, one of the key exporters of jet fuel to north-west Europe, has already experienced production cuts.
Meanwhile, tensions in the region have also created uncertainty in airspace operations. According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, several aircraft approaching Dubai were briefly placed in a holding pattern on Tuesday after a potential missile threat was detected. The planes later landed safely.
Qantas said that apart from increasing international fares, it was also exploring the possibility of shifting more flight capacity towards Europe as airlines and passengers attempt to avoid disruptions in Middle Eastern airspace. Airfares on Asia-Europe routes have already surged because of airspace closures and limited flight capacity.
In response to the growing demand, Cathay Pacific Airways announced that it would add additional flights to London and Zurich in March.
The latest flight schedule can be found at: https://t.co/xOQs6ucQGX pic.twitter.com/UJKea1LJGw
— Etihad Airways (@etihad) March 11, 2026
Air New Zealand confirmed that it had raised one-way economy fares by NZ$10 on domestic routes, NZ$20 on short-haul international services and NZ$90 on long-haul routes. The airline warned that further changes to ticket prices and flight schedules could follow if fuel prices remain high.
Similarly, Hong Kong Airlines said it would increase fuel surcharges by up to 35.2 per cent from Thursday. The largest hikes will apply to flights connecting Hong Kong with the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal.
However, some European carriers have so far refrained from raising fares. A spokesperson for International Airlines Group (IAG) — the parent company of British Airways — said the airline group remained well-hedged in the short term and currently had no plans to revise ticket prices.
Financial markets showed mixed reactions to the crisis. Airline stocks rose while oil prices dropped to around $90 per barrel on Tuesday from $119 a day earlier after US President Donald Trump suggested the conflict might end soon. When European markets opened, airline shares had climbed between 4 and 7 per cent.
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Beyond fuel costs, shrinking airspace has emerged as another major challenge for the aviation sector. Airlines are increasingly forced to reroute flights to avoid conflict zones in the Middle East, causing congestion on alternative routes and reducing overall flight capacity.
Major Gulf carriers — Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways — typically account for nearly one-third of passenger traffic between Europe and Asia and operate more than half of the flights carrying travelers from Europe to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
European airlines were already facing difficulties due to restricted airspace caused by the Ukraine war, which forced many carriers to avoid Russian airspace and operate longer routes.
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Now, the fresh wave of airspace restrictions in the Middle East has dealt another blow — particularly to Indian airlines, which rely heavily on the region as a key corridor for flights to Europe and North America. Their situation has become even more complicated since Pakistan banned Indian carriers from using its airspace last year.
With flights now needing to avoid both Pakistan and conflict-hit areas in the Middle East, Indian airlines have very limited routing options.
Data from Cirium shows that the country’s two largest international carriers — Air India and IndiGo — failed to operate 64 per cent of their 1,230 scheduled flights to the Middle East, Europe and North America over the past ten days.
As the conflict continues, aviation analysts warn that rising fuel costs, shrinking airspace and growing operational uncertainty could further disrupt global travel and place significant financial strain on airlines worldwide.
Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
