{"id":532258,"date":"2026-03-11T01:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532258\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:47:10","slug":"middle-east-flights-british-airways-cancels-services-more-airlines-could-follow-qantas-exploring-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/532258\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East flights: British Airways cancels services, more airlines could follow, Qantas exploring options"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">British Airways has confirmed it is pulling flights to and from the Middle East, with a domino effect expected to cause chaos for flight routes around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cDue to the continuing uncertainty of the situation in the Middle East and airspace instability, we\u2019ve had to temporarily reduce our flying schedule in the region,\u201d a statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe\u2019ve cancelled all flights to and from Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv until later this month and to and from Abu Dhabi until later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">British Airways did not share further details about those two time frames.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe\u2019re keeping the situation under constant review and are in touch with our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">British Airways is a partner airline of Qantas through the oneworld Alliance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas flights from Australia to Europe can often be operated by British Airways or Emirates, both of which have now either completely cancelled or severely reduced flights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cQantas does not operate any flights to the Middle East and flights to and from Europe are continuing to operate as scheduled,\u201d a spokesperson told The Nightly on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas offers a very popular flight to Aussies travelling to Europe that stops via Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cOur Perth to London flights are continuing to temporarily operate via Singapore for a fuel stop, enabling up to 60 additional customers to travel on each northbound flight,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe continue to provide support to our customers who are booked to travel on our partners including Emirates. This includes assisting them to rebook on to alternate flights or get a refund.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flight prices soar as demand, fuel cost surges<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas told The Nightly that bookings to Europe are high and that fuel costs are going up, with customers now seeing higher costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cQantas International is increasing fares this week in response to rising costs including the significant increases in jet fuel prices. These increases will vary from route to route,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThere have been strong bookings in recent weeks across parts of our international network for travel over the coming months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cFlights on Qantas\u2019 European routes, including Perth-London, Perth-Paris and services via Singapore, are more than 90 per cent full in March, which is approximately 15 percentage points higher than normal for this time of year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cBookings for flights to and from Europe between April and June have also increased in recent weeks on these routes as well as the Perth-Rome seasonal service which resumes in May.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Australians are also seeking an arguably safer flight route to Europe as tensions in the Middle East erupt, choosing to fly via the US, Asia or South Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cMore customers have also been choosing to travel to Europe via the United States, other Asian cities and Johannesburg, connecting through Qantas\u2019 partner airline network,\u201d Qantas told The Nightly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe are exploring options to redeploy capacity into Europe on existing routes in the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Air New Zealand on Thursday suspended its FY2026 earnings guidance due to jet fuel market volatility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Air India has also revealed details about surcharges that will be placed on domestic and international flights to cover higher fuel costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Reports suggest more airlines are likely to follow British Airways in pulling services, something that could harm the delicately constructed global flight ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Airways has confirmed it is pulling flights to and from the Middle East, with a domino effect&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,12241,44,41,39,42,40,1720],"class_list":["post-532258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}