The increase in demand for flight routes that bypass Middle East and Gulf connections is forcing passengers to pay more for tickets. The conflicts in the region have raised oil prices, increasing jet fuel costs and forcing many airlines to update their ticket prices.
Cathay Pacific, AirAsia and Thai Airways are among the airlines that have raised prices to offset rising costs. Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam stated at a press conference on Wednesday that fuel costs have doubled compared to the average of the previous two months. The company updated fuel surcharges on all routes as of March 18.
AirAsia announced that it will temporarily increase ticket and fuel surcharges. Thai Airways expects ticket prices to rise by 10–15 percent, while Qantas applied different price increases depending on routes. Scandinavian-based SAS also announced that it has implemented a “temporary price adjustment.” Air New Zealand stated that it will apply an additional fee of 10–20 New Zealand dollars on domestic flights and 90 New Zealand dollars on long-haul flights.
On the other hand, some airlines such as Lufthansa and Ryanair have been less affected by the increases thanks to fuel price hedging practices.
In addition to price increases, thousands of flights have been cancelled. SAS announced that it will cancel at least one thousand flights in April. CEO Anko van der Werff stated that cancellations will increase in the post-Easter period, when traffic normally declines. Norwegian is preparing to carry affected passengers by increasing its capacity. Air New Zealand also announced that it may affect 44 thousand passengers by cancelling approximately 1,100 flights between March 16 and May 3.
Decisions to suspend flights in the Middle East have also been extended. Finnair suspended its Doha and Dubai flights until March 29 and is not flying over the airspace of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Israel. ITA Airways suspended its Tel Aviv flights until April 9 and its Dubai flights until March 28. KLM suspended its Dubai flights until March 28 and cancelled its Tel Aviv flights for the remainder of the winter season. The Lufthansa Group also cancelled its Tel Aviv flights until April 9 and its Dubai flights until March 28. Wizz Air suspended its flights from mainland Europe to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Amman and Jeddah until mid-September. Delta, Cathay Pacific and Air Canada have also revised their schedules.
These disruptions have increased demand for alternative routes that do not pass through the Middle East, further pushing up ticket prices. Cathay Pacific recently requested 39,577 Australian dollars (24,142 euros) for a round-trip business class ticket from Sydney to London in April.
