Anabelle Colaco
16 Mar 2026

SYDNEY/LONDON: The war involving Iran is disrupting travel worldwide, forcing airlines to reroute flights, raising ticket prices, and leaving many travellers scrambling to salvage long-planned holidays.

For some passengers, the financial impact has been immediate. In the small Western Australian town of Dardanup, accountant Natasha Earle and her family are facing thousands of dollars in additional costs after the conflict disrupted their planned European holiday.

Their five-week trip, booked last May on Emirates and scheduled to take them to London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Rome, now requires new routes to avoid Middle Eastern airspace.

"We've spent tens of thousands of dollars on this holiday," said Earle, who is scheduled to depart at the end of the month during what has become the biggest disruption to global aviation since the COVID-19 pandemic. "We should get at least half of that back from Emirates eventually."

The changes are expected to add roughly A$10,000 (US$7,000) to the cost of the trip.

Because Middle East hubs serve as a key crossroads for international aviation, the conflict has demonstrated how quickly instability in one region can disrupt travel worldwide.

Drone and missile activity near Dubai has forced aircraft to circle or divert routes as the war enters its third week, affecting a Middle Eastern tourism industry worth roughly $367 billion annually.

Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways together normally carry more than half of the passengers travelling between Europe and Australia, New Zealand, and nearby Pacific islands, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

With much of Middle Eastern airspace closed because of the risk from missiles and drones, tens of thousands of flights have been canceled, rerouted, or delayed globally, affecting millions of travellers.

Journeys Stretched Into Days

For some passengers, routine trips have turned into lengthy and uncertain journeys. Jacob Brown, a 34-year-old New Zealander living in Doha, had planned to fly home for a wedding where he was due to be best man. When his Qatar Airways flight was cancelled, he drove across the desert into Saudi Arabia and flew from Riyadh to London.

A journey that should have taken less than 24 hours stretched over several days due to airspace closures, delays, and lost baggage. "It was pretty nerve-wracking flying out of Riyadh just considering that that morning, there had been a few missile interceptions south of the capital," he said.

Other travellers are unsure whether their trips will go ahead at all.

Aditya Kushwaha, an Australian disability support worker living near Sydney, has booked a family holiday to London and Paris in April with Emirates via Dubai.

"We are very much in a dilemma of what to do," Kushwaha said, estimating he could lose more than $10,000 if he cancels the trip and might not be able to afford another holiday for several years.

Holiday Plans Unravel

For Australian traveller Kellee Smith, a European vacation planned more than a year ago has become increasingly stressful. Her trip with her husband and two children was scheduled to begin at the end of March, but the uncertainty around flights has forced her to make alternative arrangements.

"I've had many sleepless nights as I was stressed thinking I'm going to lose my dream holiday ... and all the money we paid," Smith said. She is awaiting a refund of more than A$4,000 from Emirates after booking alternative flights with Cathay Pacific and Qantas that travel through Asia instead of the Middle East.

The conflict has already narrowed flight corridors between Europe and Asia, complicating airline operations and pushing ticket prices sharply higher.

Rising oil prices are also adding pressure to the aviation industry. Airlines are facing higher jet fuel costs and introducing fuel surcharges, while some carriers, such as Air New Zealand, have begun cutting flights.

The International Energy Agency has warned that the war is causing the largest oil supply disruption in history, raising concerns about fuel availability. Vietnam has said it could face aviation fuel shortages as soon as April.

Travellers Seek Alternative Routes

Many passengers are now deliberately avoiding Middle Eastern hubs when booking flights. John Moore, 81, and his wife, Pauline, from Bath in England, changed their flights from Qatar Airways to Qantas to Brisbane, choosing to travel via Singapore instead.

"We decided we'd rather pay the extra to book via Singapore, which is no guarantee, but clearly it's likely to be safer than the current route," Moore said.

Others have changed their destinations altogether. Sumit Sharma, a Sydney-based banker, cancelled plans to travel to Dubai with his family after Etihad Airways confirmed he could obtain a refund.

"We changed the plan from the Middle East to Hong Kong," Sharma said, adding he was now flying with Cathay Pacific and hoped to take his son to Disneyland.

Airlines say the war is reshaping global travel patterns. Qantas said more passengers were choosing to reach Europe via the United States, Asia, or Johannesburg, South Africa, using its partner network.

Cathay Pacific said the airline was seeing "drastic changes in terms of demand patterns due to the Middle East situation," while European budget carrier Ryanair reported increased bookings to destinations within Europe.

Lufthansa said forward bookings for direct flights to Asia were up 75 percent year-on-year as travellers avoided routes passing through the Middle East.

"The large Middle Eastern airlines like Emirates and Etihad can't fly the routes they should, and therefore the European and Asian airlines have to pick up that traffic," aviation specialist Hans Joergen Elnaes said.