Thousands of passengers are facing travel disruption amid Iran’s retaliation against the US’s bombing of its nuclear facilities.
On Monday, Qatar said that it would close its airspace until at least the end of the day. Not long after, Qatar said its air defenses shot down Iranian missiles targeted at a US airbase in the Gulf State. Kuwait and Bahrain later shuttered their airspace too, Reuters reported.
A US defense official confirmed to Business Insider that Iran had launched short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base, the US military’s largest Middle East base. Doha said that its air defenses thwarted the attack and that no casualties were reported.
Iranian state media said missiles were also fired at a US base in Iraq.
Hamad International Airport in the capital city of Doha is a major international travel hub. It is the base of Qatar Airways and serves almost 90 different countries.
Prior to the announcement of Qatar closing its airspace, Singapore Airlines, Air France, British Airways, and Finnair had all canceled flights to both Doha and nearby Dubai after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.
Finnair said Monday it was suspending flights to Doha through June 30, citing “the situation in the region.”
Dubai International is ranked as the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, meaning disruption there has an outsize impact on other airports.
BA Flight 109 was on its way to Dubai during the strikes. Data from Flightradar24 shows it U-turned over Saudi Arabia and diverted to Zurich in a nine-hour journey.
Meanwhile, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada had started suspending some flights to the region in the days before Saturday’s attacks.
Even for those routes that haven’t faced cancellations, flights will take longer.
That’s because they can no longer fly over Israel, Iran, and Iraq, which closed their airspaces after Israel launched a missile attack on Iran on June 13.
Flightradar24 data showed that the Air France flights were taking up to an hour longer as they flew over Egypt and Saudi Arabia instead.
Qatar Airways said in a statement that it was temporary suspending flights. “We are working closely with government stakeholders and the relevant authorities to support any passengers that have been impacted, and will resume operations when the airspace reopens,” the airline said.
Like Dubai’s Emirates, its business model counts on harnessing its geography to link destinations around the world via its home base. Flightradar24 said there were 100 flights bound for Doha when the country closed its airspace, forcing numerous diversions.
The airline was named the world’s best at the Skytrax Awards during last week’s Paris Air Show, after CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer had to pull out to focus on “our operational responsibilities due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.”
“It feels incredibly strange not to be there,” he said in a video message. “In over a decade with our airline and airport, I’ve never missed a Skytrax ceremony.”
Longer detours will also cut into airlines’ profits by requiring more fuel.
The conflict could further raise oil prices as Iran considers closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital sea passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the ocean.
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