War in the Middle East. Airlines are already counting losses

• After the situation between Iran and Israel escalated and the United States joined the conflict, flying over Middle Eastern countries has once again become extremely dangerous.
• For many airlines, travel to those parts of the world has become impossible or requires additional stopovers.
• The boards of European carriers have been conducting their own analyses of the political situation in that region for years. They predict that the situation will return to normal closer to the end of the summer.
• The airlines we spoke to do not hide the fact that the losses to the industry - caused by the outbreak of another war - will be felt by them. For some of them, the war will once again make it difficult to achieve business goals.

After Israel attacked Iran's nuclear targets, which led to an open conflict between the two countries, many industries found themselves in a difficult situation, including aviation, as best illustrated by a video circulating on social media. From the windows of a passenger plane flying over the United Arab Emirates, one of Iran's missile responses to Israeli fighter jets' air attacks can be seen.

The risk of a civilian aircraft being accidentally shot down in that area is currently very high.

- The conflicts that have been ongoing in that region until now have affected how we could carry out operations. There was a time when our flights to and from Israel were permitted. They had to take place during the day, and the layover at the airport could not be longer than 1.5 hours. We stuck to these rules. At the moment, there is a total ban on carrying out air operations - Andrzej Kobielski, Vice President of Commercial Affairs at the charter Enter Air, recently told WNP.

Due to the difficult situation in the Middle East, Lufthansa Cargo, together with the entire Lufthansa Group, has suspended flights to the Middle East.

"Flights to Tel Aviv, Israel (TLV) and Tehran, Iran (IKA) are suspended until July 31, 2025 inclusive. Reservations and acceptance of shipments to the above-mentioned ports will not be possible until further notice. Flights to Amman, Jordan (AMM), Beirut, Lebanon (BEY) and Erbil, Iraq (EBL) are suspended until June 20, 2025 inclusive. Reservations and acceptance of shipments requiring special temperature conditions (ACT, PAS, ICE, PER), time-critical shipments (BXO), animal transport (AVI, AVP, AVX) and repatriation of human remains (HUM) are impossible until further notice," the German carrier responded to WNP's questions.

Following the US attack on nuclear facilities in Iran, British Airways also decided to suspend flights to the Middle East , suspending connections to Dubai and Doha.

As Bloomberg reported, citing data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24, the British carrier canceled several flights and changed the routes of several others. The carrier also suspended flights to Bahrain until the end of the month.

Wizz Air Forces Stopovers: New Business Can't Catch the Wind in Its Sails

As we wrote in CIS , the war in Iran is once again making it difficult for Wizz Air to implement its business plan. Just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hungarian low-cost carrier launched a new line, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.

The plan was simple and very promising: operating from the United Arab Emirates, take advantage of the booming economy and interest in flights to the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

The suspension of flights during the pandemic, the subsequent fuel crisis (including the impact of the war in Ukraine), as well as subsequent conflicts in the Middle East, have resulted in the airline's business plan being implemented at a much slower pace.

"Due to the escalating situation in the Middle East and the closure of several airspaces in the region, Wizz Air has implemented alternative flight routes for some of its flights. As a result, passengers travelling to and from Dubai (DXB) and Abu Dhabi (AUH) may experience extended flight times, which in some cases may include technical stopovers for refuelling. These changes are necessary to ensure the continuity of safe flight operations as we temporarily bypass selected airspaces for security reasons," Wizz Air said in mid-June, after Israel's attack on Iran.

LOT is giving it a wide berth. Airlines are counting losses...

After the Israeli attacks began (June 13), many aircraft flying over Iraq, among others, were directed to Central Asia or Saudi Arabia. One of the world's busiest air corridors runs over the border with Iran, used for flights from Europe to the Persian Gulf states.

According to information from the WNP, Air France-KLM has suspended all flights to and from Tel Aviv until July 1. The airline will refund travelers for some of the tickets purchased earlier.

Due to the escalating security situation in the Middle East , LOT Polish Airlines will not fly to Tel Aviv until June 29 and to Beirut until June 30 – inclusive.

"In turn, connections to India and Riyadh are operated according to the schedule - within the PLL LOT network, we do not use Iranian or Iraqi airspace. In individual cases, there may be modifications to flight routes resulting from restrictions in airspace. They are of a preventive nature and do not affect the continuity of operations," the Polish carrier reported to our portal.

Enter Air does not hide the fact that the losses for the industry - caused by the outbreak of another war - will be visible.

- We had a lot of operations planned from Israel and therefore it is noticeable for us. Historically, we performed a dozen or so of these operations per week, servicing incoming traffic to Poland. It was city break traffic and flights with young people who visit Poland as part of the program of the Ministry of National Education of Israel. They visit all the places that are historically important to them. It was quite a large number of passengers. Unfortunately, it has now been suspended. We believe that this conflict will end quickly - concluded Vice President Andrzej Kobielski