Air carriers suspended flights to airspace in and out of the Middle East throughout the weekend as the wider region grapples with American and Israeli strikes on Iran expand the potential for a prolonged conflict.
Civilian air traffic has been fully closed across various Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Partial closures have impacted the U.A.E., Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Airlines have reacted by clamping down on their presence in the area. FedEx said pickup and delivery services in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and the U.A.E. have been temporarily suspended until further notice. Shipments to and from other markets throughout the region may experience extended transit times, the logistics giant said in a service alert.
Global airlines including American Airlines, Air France, Lufthansa, IndiGo and more also suspended routes to airports in the countries impacted by airspace closures.
The three major cargo airlines based in the Middle East—Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways—all suspended their operations over the weekend. Emirates and Etihad had brief resumptions on Monday.
According to data from air cargo market intelligence firm Rotate published Sunday, the airspace closures in the Middle East resulted in an 18 percent week-over-week decline in available global air cargo capacity.
The air freight hurdles mirror that of those on the ocean, in which major carriers have declared they are avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, while those that were pushing a possible return to the Red Sea have now reconsidered the option.
During a three-hour window early Monday, Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi resumed limited flights after grounding operations after the U.S.-Israeli attack. Etihad Airways had 16 flights depart from the airport during the brief opening.
The Abu Dhabi airport, alongside major Middle Eastern airports in Dubai and Doha, were all struck by Iranian missiles after the Islamic republic’s widespread retaliation to the offensive.
Dubai’s two airports, Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International Airport, resumed flights on a limited basis Monday night. Emirates and Flydubai confirmed they resumed the select flights.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport remains closed due to the airspace closures above Qatar.
The airspace closures are expected to hold up all cargo entering Iranian borders as conditions throughout the country remain unstable.
An analysis from Bloomberg indicated that e-commerce shipments to Iran have seen their estimated arrival times increase. Amazon shipments showed 45-day delivery times, a 10-day delay from the previous journey of 35 days.
Shein and Temu saw their range of delivery slow down as well. While Shein’s timeline was previously five to eight days, it shifted from eight to 10. For Temu, delivery times are now six to 20 days, compared to the prior expectations of seven to 15 days.
Additional strikes on Iranian infrastructure are likely to extend those delays even further. According to Bloomberg, two Chinese sellers that sell through the three e-commerce giants said they have paused plans to ship new inventory from China to the Middle East until conditions stabilize.
The Rotate data indicated that the Middle Eastern conflict had forced carriers to reroute their freighters to different stops worldwide, or skip them altogether. For example, the Asia-to-Europe trade lane saw a 22 percent capacity increase caused by airlines either switching technical stops to Central Asia or flying direct instead.
According to a client advisory from Seko Logistics, remaining flights are diverting via Turkey or over the Arabian Sea, adding two-to-five hours per leg.
Various logistics companies including Seko, C.H. Robinson and DSV all said they expect upward pressure on air freight rates due to the capacity limitations.
“The 30-to-50 percent increase in fuel burn not only elevates costs but also reduces payload capacity, limiting the volume of cargo that can be loaded per flight—even on rerouted services,” said Seko in the Monday advisory.
Trade lanes involving the Middle East were among the best-performing in volume growth to kick off the year, with its carriers seeing a 9.3 percent year-on-year increase in demand for air cargo in January, according to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
Air freight volumes between the Middle East and Asia increased 12.9 percent from the year prior, marking 11 consecutive months of growth. The trade lane between the Middle East and Europe also saw double-digit demand growth at 10.2 percent.
Across the board, IATA data showed that air cargo demand measured by cargo tonne-kilometers (CTK) increased by 5.6 percent. International cargo volumes expanded by 7.2 percent year over year, outperforming the headline market, with all regions except the Americas recording higher demand compared with January 2025.
