Emirati airlines resumed some flights to key global cities from the United Arab Emirates on Friday, but tensions remained high after a government-chartered Air France repatriation flight was forced to turn back on Thursday due to missile fire in the area.

The outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran has led to flight cancellations across the Middle East, leaving airlines and governments scrambling to support stranded passengers. Shares in carriers from New Zealand to Japan have slid meanwhile as the conflict drives up fuel prices.

Passengers have been forking out huge sums to get out of the Middle East, with some who managed to travel back by commercial flight on Thursday from Oman saying it had been “absolute chaos” to find their way home from Dubai.

With most airspace in the region still closed over missile and drone concerns, authorities have been arranging charter flights and securing seats on limited commercial services to evacuate tens of thousands of travellers.

But the disruption of the Air France AIRF.PAflight to bring French nationals back from the UAE on Thursday “reflects the instability in the region and the complexity of repatriation operations”, French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said.

Britain’s first repatriation flight from Oman landed at London’s Stansted Airport early on Friday after being rescheduled due to operational issues, including delays in boarding passengers.

In Poland, the first group of citizens evacuated by military airlift also arrived home on Friday, the Polish Armed Forces’ operational command said, while Portugal’s foreign ministry said a charter flight carrying 139 Portuguese citizens and eight foreigners was due to land in Lisbon.

AIR TRAFFIC ‘EXPOSED’

With the conflict showing little sign of easing, wider aviation and air cargo disruption looked set to linger.

Lufthansa LHAG.DE on Friday flagged an uncertain outlook due to geopolitics despite better-than-expected results. “The war in the Middle East proves once again how exposed air traffic is, and how vulnerable it remains,” its CEO Carsten Spohr said.

One of the carrier’s flights to Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh was forced on Friday to divert to Cairo in Egypt due to the regional security situation.

The limited operations at Middle Eastern hubs have hit travellers on routes from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region particularly hard.

Combined, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad normally fly about one-third of passengers from Europe to Asia and more than half of all passengers from Europe to Australia, New Zealand and nearby Pacific Islands, according to Cirium data.

As of Thursday, traffic at Dubai’s DXB airport, normally the world’s busiest international travel hub, had almost doubled from Wednesday, but remained only about 25% of normal levels, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad said on Friday it would resume a limited flight schedule through March 19, with flights operating to and from Abu Dhabi and around 70 destinations including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Delhi, New York, Toronto and Tel Aviv.

Dubai-based Emirates said it was operating a reduced flight schedule to 82 destinations including London, Sydney, Singapore and New York until further notice, with customers transiting in Dubai only accepted if their connecting flight was operating.

Qatar’s Doha hub remains shut, though it has been arranging a limited number of relief flights from Oman and Saudi Arabia.

EXTRA FLIGHTS

Malaysia Airlines said it would add extra flights from Kuala Lumpur to London and Paris from Friday to Sunday to support disrupted travellers, while SriLankan Airlines will operate an additional flight between Colombo and London on Sunday.

In Asia, shares of Qantas Airways QAN.AX closed down 1.8% on Friday, Air New Zealand AIR.NZ plunged 6.4%, and Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific 0293.HK dropped 1%.

The Hong Kong-listed shares of major Chinese carriers including Air China 0753.HK and China Eastern Airlines 0670.HK fell less than 1%, while Japan Airlines’ 9201.T shares eased 0.4%.

JET FUEL PRICES SOAR

Higher oil prices have sent jet fuel costs soaring, with Singapore jet fuel JET-SIN reaching a record high of $225 a barrel this week, which traders attributed to concerns about supply shortages from Middle Eastern refiners. Oil prices pulled back slightly on Friday.

“As well as lost revenue, airlines are likely to be affected by higher fuel prices,” Fitch Ratings said.

Fuel hedging varies by airline, but Fitch said most carriers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were about 50% to 80% hedged for the next three months.

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