Highlights
- European airlines adding thousands of Asian seats.
- Gulf hubs lost dominance after Iran war began.
- Industry chiefs warn price war looms after conflict ends.
British Airways, Germany's Lufthansa and France's Air France are all rolling out fresh direct flights to Asia, cutting out the Middle Eastern connection points that have controlled much of the world's international travel since 2014, when Dubai's airport pushed past Heathrow to become the planet's busiest hub for overseas passengers.
Speaking to The Telegraph ,Carsten Spohr from Lufthansa said Europe had become dangerously reliant on others for connecting its people and businesses to the rest of the world.
"This industry is a strategic asset – Europe needs sovereign abilities to connect itself rather than depending on others, as we already do when it comes to defence and energy," he explained.
Spohr warned that letting Gulf airlines control these vital routes means Europe risks losing touch with the world's fastest-growing regions.
"We are cutting off the eastern part of the globe and the southern hemisphere, which is the fastest growing part of the world for European markets and goods. That's very dangerous," he said.
Airlines add flights
BA has moved quickly to grab market share, putting more than 10,000 extra seats into the system for flights heading to Bangkok, Singapore and the Maldives.
The carrier has also started selling tickets for brand new routes to Melbourne in Australia and Colombo in Sri Lanka, while boosting how often it flies to Cape Town and Tokyo.
The airline ran eight special rescue operations bringing British people home from Gulf countries, then suspended its Qatar flights until May and stopped flying to Dubai, Bahrain, Amman and Tel Aviv until June after the Foreign Office told people not to travel to parts of the Middle East unless absolutely necessary.
Ben Smith, who runs Air France-KLM, told The Telegraph the crisis had been a "wake-up call" for Europe. "It shows how dependent the European customer is on Gulf carriers and how much leakage there has been," he said.
But some industry watchers reckon European carriers won't hold onto these gains once fighting stops.
Paul Griffiths, the man in charge of Dubai's airports, pointed out that Western airlines got rid of lots of their big long-distance planes during Covid while Gulf carriers kept their newer aircraft flying.
Michael O'Leary, who leads budget carrier Ryanair, warned that Gulf airlines and their government backers will probably start offering rock-bottom prices to win passengers back once the war ends.
