Air travel faces Covid-like hitches

Global air transport has been snarled with thousands of flights affected and busy Gulf hubs, including Dubai and Doha, shuttered to mark the biggest disruption to travel since the Covid pandemic, as Iran lashed out after Israel and the US attacked it.

Passengers were stranded around the world as airlines sought to reroute around the Middle East, where most countries had slammed their airspace shut as Iran launched retaliatory strikes on the glittering Gulf cities.

Local carriers Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific (CEB) canceled 10 flights on Monday due to rising tensions in the Middle East. PAL said the cancellations were made to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and ground personnel.

PAL flights PR 684 Manila-Doha, PR 685 Doha-Manila, PR 658/659 Manila-Dubai-Manila, and PR654/655 Manila-Riyadh-Manila were cancelled.

CEB, on the other hand, cancelled flights 5J 14/15 and 5J 18/19 Manila-Dubai-Manila.

“The safety and well-being of our passengers, crew, and teams on ground remain our highest priority,” CEB said in an advisory.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said it was closely monitoring flight operations.

Tehran hit both the Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic, and Kuwait’s main airport one day earlier.

Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all announced at least partial closures of their skies.

“There haven’t been any other crises of this magnitude since Covid,” said Didier Brechemier, an expert at business consultancy Roland Berger.

Even Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not affect the major air hubs of the Middle East through which travelers to destinations in much of Asia almost always transit, he said.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium said more than 1,500 flights to the Middle East were cancelled Sunday, more than 40 percent of scheduled traffic.

Flight tracking website FlightAware said more than 2,700 flights had been cancelled globally and more than 12,300 delayed as of 1720 GMT Sunday.

Costs pile up

The costs are “already amounting to hundreds of millions of euros in losses for air transport,” Didier Arino, CEO of the consulting firm Protourisme, said.

Countries including the Philippines, France, and Thailand have said that they are considering evacuating their citizens from the Middle East.

The Philippine government has not yet ordered a mass repatriation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said on Monday.

In a Palace briefing, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the tension in the Middle East is not yet at Alert Level 4, which requires mandatory repatriation.

He, however, assured intensified in-country assistance for the affected OFWs as some of them have asked to be repatriated.

“But for the countries in the Gulf and Israel, we have yet to reach the level of mass repatriation, but some are asking to be brought home, like in Dubai, where there are requests,” Cacdac said.

Patrice Caradec, president of the French Association of Tour Operators (SETO), told AFP that the goal now is to establish “air bridges” via alternative hubs like Istanbul.

Arino said Tehran’s attacks and the impact on air travel dealt a blow to the “soft power” of the Gulf monarchies.

“What they sell is the security of property and people,” he told AFP. “Dubai was often talked about as a bit like Switzerland, so this inevitably tarnishes that image.”

Explosions rocked Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah artificial island, and drone debris caused a fire at the Burj Al Arab ultra-luxury hotel as waves of Iranian missiles targeted the UAE on Saturday. With AFP