Airline shares fell on Monday. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific and Australia's Qantas Airlines, as well as Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines all dropped more than 5%. This was after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes against?Iran over the weekend, disrupting travel, and driving up oil prices.

On Monday, the global air travel industry was in chaos as the war in Iran forced key Middle Eastern hubs such as Dubai and Doha to close for a third consecutive day. This left tens and thousands of passengers stranded and thousands of flights disrupted.

The oil price surged by 7%, reaching its highest level in months. Iran and Israel intensified their attacks on the Middle East. They damaged tankers and disrupted shipments out of the region that produces the most oil.

Shares of Qantas dropped 10.4% when the Australian market opened, to their lowest level in 10 months, before paring losses to trade at a loss of about 6%.

Other Asian carriers including Japan's ANA Holdings, Air China. China Southern Airlines. Malaysia's AirAsia X. Taiwan's China Airlines.

Qantas stated that its flights would not be affected by the conflict because it does not fly to Middle Eastern airports. However, it offered free booking changes for customers who had to make travel arrangements as a result of the conflict.

Qantas offers flights from Australia and Singapore to Europe and shares a codeshare agreement with Emirates.

Cathay Pacific has cancelled its Middle East flights, including passenger services to Riyadh and Dubai, until further notice. Singapore Airlines has canceled all flights to and out of Dubai until March 7 while Japan Airlines has suspended flights from Tokyo to Doha for now.

According to data provider VariFlight, airlines in mainland China have cancelled 26,5% of flights from and to the Middle East between March 2 and March 8 so far.

"Overall the pattern indicates a sharp disruption in the near term but relatively limited schedule revisions later on in the week. This suggests that carriers are still holding off from larger schedule resets as they monitor developments," VariFlight stated.

Passengers left scrambling

Virgin Australia, who leases planes operated in partnership with Qatar Airways, cancelled eight flights on Monday, and offered free booking changes.

Qatar Airways passengers interviewed at Sydney Airport said that they were forced to scramble to change their plans without any guidance from the airline. The airline did not immediately respond to a comment request.

Ascanio and Alessandra, both from Italy, were surprised to find out that their Qatar Airways flight via Doha to Milan was cancelled without explanation.

They took a different route to?home', via Los Angeles on a new airline.

Alessandra Gorgetti said, "We don't have any information, and we didn't get a response on the phone when we called Qatar Airways." She added that the Qatar Airways flights costed 4,000 euros ($4,708.40).

Jenni Stewart and Doug Stewart were both 78 years old when they were traveling from Sydney to Scotland via Doha. Their flight was rerouted halfway to Doha.

Jenni Stewart stated that they were informed the airspace was closed and were returning to Sydney. "Suddenly, we were heading towards Perth without knowing why. Then it changed and went to Melbourne."

Then, they took a different flight to Sydney where they sought information.

Doug Stewart stated that "it was chaotic in Melbourne. Hundreds of people were looking for the slightest information." $1 = 0.8495 euro) (Reporting from Byron Kaye, Hollie Adams, and Shivangi lahiri in Sydney, and Ben Blanchard, Julie Zhu, in Hong Kong, Samuel Shen, in Shanghai, David Dolan, and Maki Schiraki in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, in Taipei; Anne Marie Roantree, in writing; Jamie Freed, in editing)

(source: Reuters)