By Byron Kaye and Hollie Adams
SYDNEY, March 2 (Reuters) – Airline shares plunged on Monday, with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific, Australia’s Qantas Airways, Singapore Airlines and Japan Airlines down more than 5% after the U.S. and Israel launched weekend strikes on Iran, disrupting travel and sending oil prices surging.
Global air travel remained in turmoil on Monday as war in Iran forced the closure of key Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha for a third day, stranding tens of thousands of passengers worldwide and disrupting thousands of flights.
Oil prices surged 7% to their highest in months as Iran and Israel stepped up attacks in the Middle East, damaging tankers and disrupting shipments from the key producing region.
In reaction, shares in Qantas fell 10.4% to the lowest level in 10 months when the market opened in Australia, before paring some losses to trade down about 6%.
Shares in other Asian carriers, including Japan’s ANA Holdings, Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Malaysia’s AirAsia X and Taiwan’s China Airlines and EVA Airways all fell at least 4%.
Qantas said its flights were not affected because it did not operate aircraft in Middle Eastern airports, but it was offering free booking changes to customers who needed to change travel arrangements due to the conflict.
Qantas operates flights to Europe from Australia and Singapore and has a codeshare partnership with Emirates, whose key hub in Dubai is closed.
Cathay Pacific said it had cancelled all of its flights to the Middle East, which include passenger services to Dubai and Riyadh, until further notice. Singapore Airlines cancelled flights to and from Dubai through March 7, while Japan Airlines suspended its Tokyo-Doha flights for the time being.
Data provider VariFlight said airlines in mainland China had so far cancelled 26.5% of flights to and from the Middle East from March 2 to March 8.
“Overall, the pattern points to sharp near-term disruption but relatively limited revisions further out in the week, suggesting carriers are still holding back from broader schedule resets while monitoring developments,” VariFlight said.
PASSENGERS LEFT SCRAMBLING
Virgin Australia, which leases planes operated by partner Qatar Airways for flights to Doha, said it had cancelled eight flights on Monday and was offering free booking changes.
Qatar Airways passengers at Sydney Airport interviewed by Reuters said they were left scrambling to change plans with no guidance from the airline, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Ascanio Giorgetti, 16, and his mother Alessandra Giorgetti, from Italy, arrived at Sydney Airport only to learn their Qatar Airways flight to Milan, via Doha, was cancelled without explanation.
They found an alternate route home, travelling a longer way via Los Angeles, on a different airline.
“We have no information at all, no answer on the phone from Qatar (Airways),” said Alessandra Giorgetti, who added the Qatar Airways flights had cost 4,000 euros ($4,708.40).
Jenni and Doug Stewart, both 78, were travelling from Sydney to their home in Scotland via Doha when their flight turned around halfway to Doha.
“We were told the airspace had closed and we were going back to Sydney,” Jenni Stewart said. “Suddenly we veered towards Perth and we didn’t know why, and then it changed again and went to Melbourne.”
They then caught a separate flight back to Sydney, where they were seeking information.
“It was chaotic in Melbourne, hundreds of people looking for even the vaguest of information,” Doug Stewart said.
($1 = 0.8495 euros)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Hollie Adams in Sydney and Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Julie Zhu in Hong Kong, Samuel Shen in Shanghai, David Dolan and Maki Shiraki in Tokyo, Jun Yuan Yong in Singapore and Juarawee Kittsilpa in Malaysia; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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