British Airways has extended the suspension of flights across seven Middle East routes until October 25 and is offering full refunds to affected customers, as disruption from the Iran war continues to weigh on Gulf aviation it announced in a press release seen by Emerging Travel.
Services to and from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai, Tel Aviv and Riyadh have been cancelled or temporarily suspended, the carrier said in a customer advisory. The Dubai resumption, which had been due on July 1, has been pushed back to October 25.
Customers booked to or from those destinations for travel up to October 31 can request a full refund, even where a flight is still scheduled to operate. The offer applies to tickets for travel between February 28 and October 31. Passengers due to travel from June 2 can instead rebook to a later date on the same route, or onto a different British Airways route, without a change fee, though a fare difference may apply. The rebooking option also covers Jeddah.
“Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, we have made further changes to our flying schedule to provide greater clarity for our customers,” an airline representative told The National. The carrier said it would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so.
The disruption stems from the Iran war, which broke out on February 28 and forced large-scale airspace closures across the Gulf. The extension comes despite a pause in active hostilities between Iran and the US. Flight operations in the UAE and the wider Gulf are gradually returning to normal, but several international airlines have kept route suspensions in place as they weigh operational and security risks.
Global air passenger demand fell 3.4% in April as the drop in Middle East traffic outweighed growth elsewhere, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Demand for Middle East carriers plunged 46.6% during the month, making it the worst-performing region globally.
“The 46.6 per cent fall in demand for carriers in the Middle East due to war in the region was so acute that it dragged overall demand down, to minus 3.4 per cent,” IATA director general Willie Walsh said.