Renewed fighting in the Middle East has pushed back the return of major airlines to the region’s airports, including Dubai where traffic is down by around 7% this month.
Air France was due to return to DXB this week but has pushed that out to next week while other big carriers won’t be resuming flights until later this year.
British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines won’t be returning to DXB until the end of Oct. Of the 90 carriers that served DXB before the 28 Feb attack on Iran, more than half have restored their flights.
Last week the EU Aviation Safety Agency issued renewed guidelines instructing carriers to avoid the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and the Gulf of Oman as fighting intensified.
“Unpredictable military developments, combined with the possible use of missiles, drones, combat aircraft and air-defence systems, create a high risk to civil flights at all altitudes and flight levels within the concerned airspace,” the advisory said. The warning is valid through to the middle of next week. Overnight the US has undertaken its twelfth day of airstrikes on Iran. US President Trump has downplayed the prospect of peace talks, and the Iran aligned Houthi rebels have threatened Red Sea shipping. Oil prices have edged up 2%.
. . . DXB Is Confident
DXB ceo Paul Griffiths has said at the Farnborough Airshow he is confident that traffic will be restored as the industry recovers strongly.
. . . MFAT
This week the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade updated its SafeTravel Advisory due to the on-going Iran conflict.
It now urges New Zealanders to avoid non-essential travel (Level 3 of 4) to the following Middle East locations: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. See the full MFAT update HERE.
