{"id":584385,"date":"2026-04-04T05:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584385\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:48:10","slug":"aussie-flights-axed-as-iran-conflict-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584385\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie flights axed as Iran conflict escalates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Flights operated on behalf of Virgin Australia by Qatar Airways have been cancelled until at least mid-June over growing instability in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2025, Qatar Airways bought a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Australia, providing the Australian airline with aircraft and crew for flights to Doha.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This bypassed government restrictions on the number of flights Qatar Airways could operate under its own name.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"SYDNEY AIRPORT\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3290e60decf9783a6d0214683707d3be.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Some travellers had slept at Sydney Airport at the beginning of the conflict as their flights were cancelled. . Picture: NewsWire \/ John Appleyard<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The services, coded VA1 to VA22, have been available since mid last year, however it\u2019s unclear when these services might return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cVirgin Australia services operated by Qatar Airways remain impacted by the ongoing security situation in the Middle East,\u201d a statement from Virgin Australia said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Since the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, Qatar Airlines has been hit the hardest by airspace closures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">About 87 per cent of its services have been cancelled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Virgin Australia has been offering refunds, credit or re-booking up to the end of October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This applies to anyone booked on one of its VA-coded Qatar flights, now which have all cancelled until June 15.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Docks Stock\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b2dbf8b048851e5fb60fc7447bb7c3f3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thousands of Australians were stranded overseas amid a waiting game as conflict in Middle East escalated. Picture: NCA NewsWire \/ Gaye Gerard<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After a period of significant grounding due to airspace closure, Qatar Arlines was only flying a fraction of its usual routes from to and from Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There are flights to Sydney and Melbourne on alternating days and from Perth to Melbourne then onto Doha every other day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Using safe air corridors from Doha meant the flights were longer and limited for travellers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This follows a \u2018Do Not Travel\u2019 advisory issued by Smartraveller and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flights operated on behalf of Virgin Australia by Qatar Airways have been cancelled until at least mid-June over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,286133,44,284782,18986,12807],"class_list":{"0":"post-584385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-flights-to-doha","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-qatar-airlines","13":"tag-qatar-airways","14":"tag-virgin-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584385","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=584385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}