Middle East conflict puts added strain on air traffic management

A quick look at Flightradar24 provides a clear view of what the current war in the Middle East is doing to commercial airline flight paths, with gaping holes where hundreds of commercial airliners once traversed the globe on a daily basis.

The Gulf region has previously been the crossroads for flights between Europe, Asia and beyond, allowing Middle East carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways especially to build booming global networks from their Dubai and Doha hubs, respectively, extending to all parts of the globe and offering millions of passengers regular and direct flights to where they want to go.

But since the start of the latest conflict in the Middle East, in addition to the direct impact on carriers based in the region, global airlines have been affected as flight paths have been redrawn. The flight information regions of Tehran, Baghdad, Kuwait, Bahrain and Doha have been largely closed, with restrictions in the FIRs of Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

As a result, commercial airline traffic is being pushed north, through central Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey, or south via Oman, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The routings are longer and increasingly congested, putting a strain on air navigation service providers and their air traffic controllers managing an influx of traffic. Coupled with this, further north airspace restrictions have been in place since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has meant Western airlines are no longer able to use Russian airspace.

Today in particular, the narrow corridor to the north over Azerbaijan and Armenia is increasingly congested, with flights to and from South-East Asia and Australia among those using this routing.

In the air, advanced aircraft avionics and on the ground, air traffic management systems and controllers ensure vertical and horizontal separation standards are maintained, as specified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Sophisticated flow management systems and processes are deployed to safely manage traffic in the constrained airspace.

Conflict zones are making life for ANSP, air traffic controllers, and airline risk assessment and flight planning departments increasingly complex, with flight planning more dynamic than it has ever been. The result for airlines is longer routings and increased fuel burn, affecting costs and potentially flight crew duty limits on certain routes.

The increased complexity also comes at a time when one of the biggest challenges ANSPs around the world are facing is recruiting the next generation of air traffic controllers, and enough of them to manage growing air traffic.

A career as an air traffic controller is certainly not for everyone, requiring a specific blend of cognitive ability, spatial awareness, ability to work under pressure, communication skills, and behavioural traits.

“It’s a niche, high-pressure and dynamic role and not one for the faint-hearted,” acknowledges ANSP Airservices Australia, which manages 11 per cent of the world’s airspace. It employs about 900 air traffic controllers, endorsed 91 new controllers in 2025, and is aiming to endorse a further 95 this year.

So, what does this added complexity mean for passengers? You can expect longer flights if you are heading to Europe; more delays on the ground to manage the growing congestion on certain sectors in the air; increased fares thanks to rising jet fuel prices and longer routings; changes to flight paths, and the necessity for stops on some routes; and potentially last-minute changes as airlines deal with a rapidly changing operating environment. The overriding rationale for any airline, ANSP or air traffic controller will always be safety, despite the current challenging aviation environment.

Editor’s note

Remember that, for example, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways and Scoot’s international flights are all still flying to Europe.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) fly from Perth to Tokyo, and have connecting flights to London. It is about 10 hours’ flying time from Perth to Tokyo, and 14 hours from Tokyo to London.