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ABC News
9 hours ago
- Business
- ABC News
Are flights to Dubai and Doha cancelled? Airlines assessing risk during Israel-Iran war
Australian travellers have so far been spared flight cancellations or major disruptions, despite global airlines avoiding areas of conflict in the Middle East or suspending services altogether. Flight trackers show airlines are avoiding airspace over Iran, Iraq and Israel, while some have cancelled services to areas on the southern side of the Gulf. Former A380 captain James Nixon said avoiding certain airspace was "business as usual" for airlines. "You just trust the security department of the airline that you're not going to be rerouted over anything like that, and they close those air spaces immediately," he said. "Every day, there are airlines having to be rerouted over airspace." How is safety monitored? Mr Nixon, who has 31 years' experience flying, said companies that monitored flight risks, such as Ops Group, provided information to airlines' security and flight planning departments. "They just build flight paths around the areas that are closing," he said. "People are now being routed over Saudi and up through Egypt, and into Europe that way, and they are not going through Iraq, Iran or Jordan." He said at this stage, those areas on the southern side of the Persian Gulf were "completely safe". "It is hundreds of miles away from any action," he said. University of Southern Queensland Professor of Aviation Kan Tsui said airlines would be monitoring risks through their safety management systems. "They have a standard procedure to assess the risk to any particular flight," he said. "Once they assess a risk to the flight that's ongoing … they will have a plan to reroute or avoid particular airspace." Virgin Australia's newly launched flights to Doha, in partnership with Qatar Airlines, haven't been affected. It only launched its Sydney to Doha and Brisbane to Doha services last week. The airline is monitoring the situation closely. Qantas doesn't itself fly to Doha or Dubai. Those flights are operated by Emirates or Qatar. Which Airlines are cancelling flights? Some airlines have suspended services. Singapore Airlines has cancelled flights. ( ABC News: Brant Cumming ) Singapore Airlines cancelled flights to and from Dubai on Sunday after a "security assessment of the geopolitical situation". It warned further services on the Dubai route may be affected "as the situation remains fluid". British Airways A British Airways plane. ( Flickr: Clement Alloing ) British Airways also suspended flights to Doha and Dubai. It said it was reviewing the situation for future flights. Air France Passengers wait at the Air France check-in counter at the Tom Jobim International airport in Rio de Janeiro June 1, 2009. An Air France plane with 228 people on board was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after hitting stormy weather during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. ( Sergio Moraes: Reuters, file photo ) Air France cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. Emirates Emirates are resuming flights to Adelaide. ( Supplied: Emirates ) Emirates, which operates out of Dubai, has suspended all flights to Iran and Iraq for the next week at least. Qatar Airways Qatar Airways has cancelled flights to Iraq, Iran and Syria. ( Supplied: Facebook Qatar Airways ) Qatar Airways has cancelled flights to Iran, Iraq and Syria It advised other passengers that some flight times may change to minimise disruptions. Etihad Airways In this May 4, 2014 file photo, an Etihad Airways plane prepares to land at the Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates ( AP: Kamran Jebreili ) Etihad Airways warned its customers the situation remained "highly dynamic". "Further changes or disruption, including sudden airspace closures or operational impact, may occur at short notice." Israel's Airports Authority said so-called rescue flights to the country would expand on Monday to 24 a day, although each flight would be limited to 50 passengers. Israeli airline El Al said it had received applications to leave the country from about 25,000 people in about a day. Could flight prices increase? Given the volatility of the situation, Professor Tsui said the broader impacts on the aviation industry wouldn't be known for days. One impact of flying longer routes to avoid the region, he said, was it used more fuel. "Whether the airline passes on the extra operational cost to passengers really depends on the airlines," he said. "But I predict that the airlines would pass on the cost to passengers, so maybe in the near future or in future bookings, their ticket price would be increased." He said another factor could be travellers cancelling their plans — perceiving, whether correctly or incorrectly, that travel was more dangerous at the moment. "[In the past we have] seen the impacts of geopolitical risks or war affecting travel demand or tourist demand … [travellers being] more cautious, thinking about not just the ticket price itself but also their safety." ABC/Reuters
AsiaOne
10-06-2025
- Business
- AsiaOne
Expanding missile threats and airspace closures are straining airlines, World News
NEW DELHI — Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing burden on airline operations and profitability, executives say, as carriers grapple with missiles and drones, airspace closures, location spoofing and the shoot-down of another passenger flight. Airlines are racking up costs and losing market share from cancelled flights and expensive re-routings, often at short notice. The aviation industry, which prides itself on its safety performance, is investing more in data and security planning. "Flight planning in this kind of environment is extremely difficult … The airline industry thrives on predictability, and the absence of this will always drive greater cost," said Guy Murray, who leads aviation security at European carrier TUI Airline. With increasing airspace closures around Russia and Ukraine, throughout the Middle East, between India and Pakistan and in parts of Africa, airlines are left with fewer route options. "Compared to five years ago, more than half of the countries being overflown on a typical Europe-Asia flight would now need to be carefully reviewed before each flight," said Mark Zee, founder of OpsGroup, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East since October 2023 led to commercial aviation sharing the skies with short-notice barrages of drones and missiles across major flight paths — some of which were reportedly close enough to be seen by pilots and passengers. Russian airports, including in Moscow, are now regularly shut down for brief periods due to drone activity, while interference with navigation systems, known as GPS spoofing or jamming, is surging around political fault lines worldwide. When hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan last month, the neighbours blocked each other's aircraft from their respective airspace. "Airspace should not be used as a retaliatory tool, but it is," Nick Careen, International Air Transport Association (IATA) senior vice president for operations, safety and security, told reporters at the airline body's annual meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. Isidre Porqueras, chief operating officer at Indian carrier IndiGo, said the recent diversions were undoing efforts to reduce emissions and increase airline efficiencies. Worst-case scenario Finances aside, civil aviation's worst-case scenario is a plane being hit, accidentally or intentionally, by weaponry. In December, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. The plane was accidentally shot down by Russian air defences, according to Azerbaijan's president and Reuters sources. In October, a cargo plane was shot down in Sudan, killing five people. Six commercial aircraft have been shot down unintentionally, with three near-misses since 2001, according to aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions. Governments need to share information more effectively to keep civil aviation secure as conflict zones proliferate, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this week. Safety statistics used by the commercial aviation industry show a steady decline in accidents over the past two decades, but these do not include security-related incidents such as being hit by weaponry. IATA said in February that accidents and incidents related to conflict zones were a top concern for aviation safety requiring urgent global coordination. Tough choices Each airline decides where to travel based on a patchwork of government notices, security advisers, and information-sharing between carriers and states, leading to divergent policies. The closure of Russian airspace to most Western carriers since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022 put them at a cost disadvantage compared to airlines from places like China, India and the Middle East that continue to take shorter northern routes that need less fuel and fewer crew. Shifting risk calculations mean Singapore Airlines' flight SQ326 from Singapore to Amsterdam has used three different routes into Europe in just over a year, Flightradar24 tracking data shows. When reciprocal missile and drone attacks broke out between Iran and Israel in April 2024, it started crossing previously avoided Afghanistan instead of Iran. Last month, its route shifted again to avoid Pakistan's airspace as conflict escalated between India and Pakistan. Flight SQ326 now reaches Europe via the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Singapore Airlines did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Pilots and flight attendants are also worried about how the patchwork of shifting risk might impact their safety. "IATA says airlines should decide if it's safe to fly over conflict zones, not regulators. But history shows commercial pressures can cloud those decisions," said Paul Reuter, vice president of the European Cockpit Association, which represents pilots. Flight crew typically have the right to refuse a trip due to concerns about airspace, whether over weather or conflict zones, IATA security head Careen said. "Most airlines, in fact, I would say the vast majority of them, do not want crew on an aircraft if they don't feel comfortable flying," he said. [[nid:717677]]
