‘Dream holidays’ in disarray, trips diverted as travellers count cost of Iran war

The war has already led to the closure of much of the Middle East’s airspace. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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SYDNEY/LONDON - In the remote Western Australian town of Dardanup, accountant Natasha Earle and her family are feeling the financial pain of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Their “once-in-a-lifetime” five-week trip to Europe - booked last May on Emirates and taking them to London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Rome - has been upended by the conflict, and is costing roughly A$10,000 (S$9,000) more as they reroute to avoid disruptions from drone and missile fire in the Middle East.

“We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on this holiday,” said Ms Earle, who is due to fly at the end of this month amid the biggest disruption to global travel since the pandemic. “We should get at least half of that back from Emirates eventually.”

With the Gulf serving as a global crossroads for commercial aviation, the Iran conflict underscores how quickly a problem in a single region can paralyse travel worldwide, driving up prices, squeezing capacity and throwing holiday plans into disarray.

Drone and missile fire have regularly left aircraft circling near Dubai as the war enters its third week, heavily impacting Middle East tourism worth some US$367 billion (S$470 billion) annually to the region.