Iran war threatens Easter travel as BA cancels Middle East flights
The war raging in the Middle East threatened to throw Easter travel into chaos on Tuesday, with British Airways announcing it was canceling all flights to the region.
BA said it would cancel flights to and from the region on routes that usually serve thousands of passengers each day because of the conflict between Iran, the US and Israel.
In the announcement, the airline said that all flights to Amman in Jordan, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv have been canceled until the end of this month. Flights to and from Abu Dhabi have been canceled until later this year.
BA will also pause its return flights from Muscat to London after Thursday due to “reduced demand” due to limited seats remaining on the final flights out of Oman on Wednesday and Thursday.
BA has become the latest airline to suspend flights indefinitely as the US continues a widespread bombing campaign aimed at fomenting regime change in Iran. US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday would be the busiest day of attacks since the war began on February 28.
“Due to the ongoing uncertainty of the situation in the Middle East and the instability of the airspace, we have been forced to temporarily reduce our flight schedule in the region,” a spokesman for the company said, adding that the schedule “will remain under ongoing review.”
Flights to Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv will be canceled until March 28. It is also not available for sale to new customers from March 29 to April 15.
Flights to Abu Dhabi are seasonal and will not restart until October 2026.
The last BA repatriation flight, aiming to bring back BA passengers stranded in the Gulf, will depart from Oman’s capital on March 12.
Services are exclusive to customers with existing bookings from Middle East locations, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But with regular flights departing from Etihad and Emirates, departing travelers are choosing not to make the five-hour journey across the desert, instead boarding a commercial jet from the nearest airport.
Airlines and businesses face further uncertainty following mixed signals from Washington about how long the conflict will last.
President Donald Trump this week promised that the war would be a “short-term excursion” that would end “very soon” but later threatened Iran with “death, fire and fury” if it continued to disrupt maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. About 20 percent of global oil supply passes through this route, making it key to the global economy.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hegseth said the United States “will not give up until the enemy is completely and utterly defeated,” adding: “But we are doing so on our own timeline and at our own discretion. For example, today will again be the busiest day of our attacks inside Iran.”
Mr Hegseth said more fighter jets and bombers were being deployed to strike Iran as experts warned the Islamic Republic could play a “war of attrition” by running out of expensive US weapons before using better equipment.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi signaled that Iran is no closer to backing down under US-Israeli pressure, telling PBS: “We are fully prepared to continue attacking them with our missiles as long as and as long as necessary.”
Separately, the UK government said the British battleship HMS Dragon He left the naval base in Portsmouth to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect Cyprus. The ship left Portsmouth Harbor a week after its deployment was announced.
The Type 45 destroyer has the capacity to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies as the Middle East crisis continues.
