Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[RSD]

Sorry, can you remind me when your travel is?

We're booked to return to Australia via Doha on Saturday, and I was going to wait and see a bit longer. One of us' flight is Velocity points and the other paid with Qatar. If the airlines are willing to cancel already, maybe I should be looking at alternative ways home already?

I doubt that you will be flying via DOH on Saturday...

 

[Daver6]

Imagine having to change travel plans urgently because of bombs dropping in the middle east and the Qantas lines are clogged with people wanting to get double status credits

I resemble that comment QF Double Status Credits February 2026 Promo

QF only have themselves to blame for not putting the infrastructure in place to achieve what I need online.

 

[RSD]

Imagine having to change travel plans urgently because of bombs dropping in the middle east and the Qantas lines are clogged with people wanting to get double status credits

Bad timing... maybe we need to explain to the Americans what DSC means and that it is best to avoid starting new wars during a DSC promotion...

Getting say government approval for EK to base a bunch of flights at say SIN might be easy, but the hard stuff will be things like gate capacity, check-in staff, catering, maintenance.. that stuff just can't be turned on quickly at scale.

Especially with EK having so many A380's - a lot of gates can't take them.

 

[dajop]

Getting say government approval for EK to base a bunch of flights at say SIN might be easy, but the hard stuff will be things like gate capacity, check-in staff, catering, maintenance.. that stuff just can't be turned on quickly at scale.

Could an Australian carrier running flights through a wet lease arrangements operated by a different carrier, run flights to the UK under Australia/UK air services agreement, routing via SIN? Or would that be considered a foreign carrier operating? Of course would only work If they could persuade another airline to temporarily lend them some slots at LHR.

 

[jase05]

A good question for @jase05 .

Note that the vast majority of international freight travels by sea or rail/road, but high value items that aren't buly go by air.

Absolutely it will have a knock on effect.
I’m guessing we will be briefed in the coming days but the dedicated freighters have some wiggle room but the the freight that normally goes via pax flights will have significant delays

 

[RSD]

Yeah, I was wondering in the current lead-up, or after the last airspace closure if some of the ME carriers might have worked on contingency plans to operate Aust/Asia to Europe via, say Saudi or Cairo or Istanbul.

Jeddah airport is massive - it caters for the serge of > 1 million pax during the Hajj so should have a lot of capacity.

Of course the airlines would have to get a lot of their craft out of the closed airports and there are are probably other insurmountable logistical issues but if push comes to shove some flow should be possible using aircraft not at the bases.

Cairo - no not enough spare gates and the infrastructure in the terminals wouldn't cope with many more passengers.

Jeddah - might have been a thought 24 hours ago, but this happened down the coast today... says Iranian but I'm betting Houthis, and if the Houthi missiles can reach Israel then Jeddah is well within reach...

2M views · 18K reactions | Iran has targeted a joint oil facility of Exxon Mobile and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia's Jizan region. | AnewZ

Iran has targeted a joint oil facility of Exxon Mobile and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia's Jizan region.

www.facebook.com

 

[Quickstatus]

Could an Australian carrier running flights through a wet lease arrangements operated by a different carrier, run flights to the UK under Australia/UK air services agreement, routing via SIN?

Yes but not to LHR with QF flight number as QF is maxed out on its LHR slots (unless BA happy to relinquish its leased slots). Could the ME airlines lease QF their slots?

 

[dajop]

Yes but not to LHR with QF flight number as QF is maxed out on its LHR slots (unless BA happy to relinquish its leased slots). Could the ME airlines lease QF their slots?

I wasn’t talking about QF though!

 

[AuSammy]

Could an Australian carrier running flights through a wet lease arrangements operated by a different carrier, run flights to the UK under Australia/UK air services agreement, routing via SIN? Or would that be considered a foreign carrier operating? Of course would only work If they could persuade another airline to temporarily lend them some slots at LHR.

In that vain would there be any constraints on an aussie carrier with AY wet leases running flights from SIN-HEL or to a UK airport that is not slot constrained. AY land in Manchester and Gatwick currently (besides Heathrow).

 

[justinbrett]

I wasn’t talking about QF though!

Well VA doesn’t have any slots so that’s even worse.

 

[Quickstatus]

wasn’t talking about QF though!

Which other AU carrier has unused pre - allocated landing slots into any UK level 3 airport?

The only way is for the ME airlines to temporarily assign its slots to an AU carrier, or for the Airport coordination authority to provide some dispensation.

 

[dajop]

Well VA doesn’t have any slots so that’s even worse.

Although could they maybe organise to lease some in the short term from QR if QR weren’t using them ?

Basically when people talk about QR, EK or EY flying via a different port it seems that QR has the least hurdles to do so, ( other than slots), using the VA arrangement.

 

[AuSammy]

Mulling over the length of impacts from the current mess. If flights through the ME airports are usually say 90% full. For each full day of airport closures, then surely it will be something like 10 subsequent days for delayed passengers to ripple out of the system. That's not counting the time taken to reposition planes / crew back to where they are needed.

 

[LionKing]

May I ask if any passengers on the diverted VA1/QR8400 - 28 Feb managed to get back to Sydney or they are still stranded in Melbourne?

 

[LionKing]

It appears airlines were unable to find accommodation for stranded passengers in Sydney due to a major event and they are sleeping at Sydney T1 overnight as the result:

Major Gulf airports damaged as airlines suspend flights

Australia's airports peak body has warned of "significant disruptions" to global aviation in coming days after the Middle East erupted into conflict and flights to the region were cancelled.

www.abc.net.au

 

[justinbrett]

Although could they maybe organise to lease some in the short term from QR if QR weren’t using them ?

Basically when people talk about QR, EK or EY flying via a different port it seems that QR has the least hurdles to do so, ( other than slots), using the VA arrangement.

It would be much simpler for QR to fly the route in their own right. VA brings nothing to the table.

 

[IrishPete]

Mulling over the length of impacts from the current mess. If flights through the ME airports are usually say 90% full. For each full day of airport closures, then surely it will be something like 10 subsequent days for delayed passengers to ripple out of the system. That's not counting the time taken to reposition planes / crew back to where they are needed.

One of the reasons I'm not in a rush to cancel my flights through Doha. I have seats for now, and I'm holding onto them.

 

[markis10]

It appears airlines were unable to find accommodation for stranded passengers in Sydney due to a major event and they are sleeping at Sydney T1 overnight as the result:

Major Gulf airports damaged as airlines suspend flights

Australia's airports peak body has warned of "significant disruptions" to global aviation in coming days after the Middle East erupted into conflict and flights to the region were cancelled.

www.abc.net.au

Accomodation was at a premium this week for Sydney even with the Mardis Gras done and dusted, Wednesday night city hotels are averaging $400-600 a night, the InterCon wanted $800.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

It appears airlines were unable to find accommodation for stranded passengers in Sydney due to a major event and they are sleeping at Sydney T1 overnight as the result:

Major Gulf airports damaged as airlines suspend flights

Australia's airports peak body has warned of "significant disruptions" to global aviation in coming days after the Middle East erupted into conflict and flights to the region were cancelled.

www.abc.net.au

An important question here is why the airlines aren’t booking passengers on flights operated by other airlines particularly if their final destination is not the Middle East. Yes this kinetic storm in the Middle East may but outside their control but they must take all reasonable measures to mitigate disruptions under Article 19 of the Montreal Convention which would include booking on other airlines

 

[lovestotravel]

I fly in about a week MEL-DXB..... Was meant to be EK Gamechanger F but who knows.... The rest of the family is on SQ ... I cancelled my J a few months back to get F on EK ....

I've just booked a backup plan MEL-ICN on Asiana and then a points booking on AF J ICN-CDG - At least it's the A350 and I've never seen ICN before...

Can cancel Asiana for about $200 I think, not sure it's so confused
Can cancel AF for 70 EU