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According to Flight Global, global air carriers are slowly resuming flights to the Middle East as region-based airlines continue to restore their networks, even as conflict between the USA and Iran drags on and fuel prices rise again.

A handful of airlines from Europe and North America have restarted or announced intentions to restart flights to heavily impacted hubs such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, as well as key routes to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in September, Central European budget carrier Wizz Air announced plans to “progressively restore” flights from European destinations to 12 Middle Eastern cities, including Amman, Jordan; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Dubai; and Abu Dhabi. However, its Abu Dhabi base will not reopen.

Wizz’s decision followed a review of travel to the region by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which states that the situation in Jordan “improved significantly” in August. However, EASA warns against operating over the waters of the Persian Gulf.

Swiss is another European carrier that announced plans this month to resume daily flights from Zurich to Dubai, starting at the end of October.

The announcements follow a slow trickle of capacity growth to the region from Europe in recent months as carriers weigh risk and demand. Fighting has been stop-start as the USA and Iran exchange strikes in the area.

Air France and Lufthansa have resumed flying to Riyadh, with the former also returning to Tel Aviv and Dubai. The German carrier will fly to Amman, Jordan again on 25 October. Austrian Airlines will also resume flights to Amman in October, and Turkish Airlines resumed flights to Abu Dhabi in July 2026.

Despite their plans to return to the region, European carriers are treading carefully. For instance, Greek carrier Aegean Airlines, which was hit hard by the fallout from the war in the Middle East, says it will take a “completely different” approach to capacity growth going forward because of geopolitical uncertainty.

Speaking on a first-half earnings call on 15 September, Aegean chair Eftichios Vassilakis said: “We had all hoped in June, after that initial ceasefire agreement, that there would be an abatement. This was only temporary, and now we’re looking at a situation where it’s clear to the market that, at least for the next two to three quarters, it’s likely that we’ll be faced with a significant delta in the price of fuel to what we’re accustomed to. Clearly, this means our attitude towards capacity has to be completely different going forward.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, United Airlines resumed flights to Tel Aviv from Chicago and Washington, DC, in early September, while Delta Air Lines reinstated flights to the Israeli city from New York JFK, but has yet to restart those from Atlanta or Boston. American Airlines’ flights to Israel remain on pause.

Airlines based in the Middle East, meanwhile, have continued to restore their networks after the disruption sparked by the start of the Iran war in February. Qatar Airways, for instance, said earlier this month that it had expanded its winter network to more than 170 destinations, including the resumption of Zanzibar flights in October and Canberra via Melbourne in December.

The Doha-based carrier says it is seeing “strong demand”, prompting it to boost frequencies on routes from its hub to cities including Johannesburg, Montreal, Phuket, London and Frankfurt. Qatar Airways will increase the number of flights it operates within the Middle East by 13% in the winter season, including four route resumptions in Saudi Arabia. The carrier says it is “entering the winter season with greater scale and a robust global footprint”.

Dubai-based Emirates says it closed the summer “ahead of expectations” and enters the winter season with “strong booking momentum” across its network. The carrier will launch flights to Helsinki in October and is increasing capacity to cities including Accra in Ghana, Tokyo and Hanoi.

Meanwhile, FlyDubai says it has restored operations to 85% of its network and now serves 125 destinations in 56 countries. The carrier points to “resilient” travel demand and says it has resumed flights to Aleppo and is trebling daily frequencies to Bangkok. It will also launch service to Pokhara, Nepal, on 23 September.

FlyDubai chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith says: “As conditions stabilise, we remain well-positioned to fully restore our network and support the growing flows of travel, trade and tourism through Dubai over the next few months.”

Middle Eastern airlines saw international traffic fall 9.5% year-on-year in July on a 5.8% reduction in capacity, according to IATA data. Overall airline capacity to and from the Middle East fell 6.2% as traffic dropped 10%. IATA senior vice-president for sustainability and chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen, however, says that traffic through the Gulf hubs is on a “recovery trajectory”.

She adds: “Although high fuel costs, economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions continue, carriers are expressing confidence in demand for the last part of the year with an almost 3% expansion of seat capacity in September.”

Fragile peace efforts have led to lingering cancellations and rolling delays more than six months into the conflict, while fuel-price spikes have forced carriers to tightly manage capacity and growth in the face of unpredictability.

By the end of October, many other airlines may be flying to the Middle East – should things stay on track.

British Airways, for instance, has delayed its phased return, planning to resume Dubai, Tel Aviv, Bahrain and Amman flights by the end of October. ITA Airways and KLM also plan October resumptions, but other carriers such as Virgin Atlantic, Finnair and Air Canada remain farther away, into 2027.