(March 5): Qantas Airways Ltd and Air India are adding long-haul flights after the war in the Middle East knocked out carriers in the region, roiling travel plans and causing airfares to skyrocket.
Qantas, Australia’s flag carrier, has seen a “spike in customers travelling via the US” to get to their final destinations, the company said in an email on Thursday. That’s prompted the airline to deploy a spare 485-seat Airbus SE A380 — which was initially supposed to fly to Germany for maintenance — to be used as a flight from Sydney to London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday, it said.
Meanwhile, Air India is adding several extra flights from March 5 to March 10, including three extra flights to Toronto and Frankfurt from New Delhi, and another one from the Indian capital to Paris, it said in a post on X. The Indian flag carrier said it will look at adding more flights beyond March 11.
Global airlines are scrambling to cope with the chaos caused by the conflict in Iran, which has effectively grounded dominant Gulf carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways QCSC and Etihad since Saturday. That’s knocked out more than 10% of daily international flight capacity, according to consultancy OAG Aviation, which is leading some airfares at other airlines to surge as much as 900%.
Uploaded by Evelyn Chan
