You’re booking a package holiday, finalising your trip to the Maldives, it’s feeling exciting and straightforward, flights, resort, dates all coming together. Then, just before you’re ready to book, you are presented with a waiver you’re asked to sign, confirming you accept responsibility for any disruption, delays, rerouting or extra costs if your journey goes via the Middle East. In that moment, the conversation shifts from dreaming about your holiday to understanding exactly who carries the risk if things don’t go to plan…
Our Approach to Middle East Flight Routings. Keeping You Safe and Informed…
One of the questions we’ve been asked a lot recently is whether it’s safe to fly through the Middle East, particularly with airlines such as Emirates continuing to operate many of their usual services.
The good news is that, in many ways, things are returning to normal. During my recent stay in Mauritius, I watched dozens of flights arriving and departing every single day through the major Middle Eastern hubs.
However, as always in travel, there’s a difference between what is possible and what we feel is responsible to recommend.
At the moment, while the UK government’s FCDO advice still advises against all but essential travel for certain destinations and airspace within the region, we have taken the decision not to offer those routings as part of our package holidays.
That may feel cautious to some, but our role is not simply to get you there. It’s to look after you properly if something changes unexpectedly.
The reality is that situations involving airspace restrictions can change very quickly. Flights that are operating perfectly normally today can suddenly face diversions, cancellations or rerouting tomorrow if advice changes overnight. When that happens, travellers can find themselves dealing with unexpected hotel costs, extra transport expenses, missed connections and lost holiday time.
Of course, wherever possible, flying direct is always the ideal. Most travellers would understandably prefer to step on a plane in the UK and arrive at their destination without a connection in between. The challenge at the moment is that direct flight pricing has risen dramatically on many routes. In some cases, we’re seeing fares increase by anywhere between 15% and 50% compared to previous years.
The cheaper direct fares are still out there, but you often need to be incredibly flexible with travel dates, departure airports and even lengths of stay to secure them. For many families tied to school holidays or fixed annual leave, that simply isn’t realistic.
That’s why we can’t ignore connecting flights at the moment, because in many cases they now represent significantly better value. Instead, we are currently recommending alternative routing options, particularly with Turkish Airlines.
In fact, there’s a real positive here. Right now, Turkish Airlines are offering some very competitive fares along with excellent connection times. While many Middle Eastern carriers are operational again, several are still running reduced schedules compared to normal, which can sometimes mean longer layovers. Turkish Airlines has stepped in brilliantly for many destinations and, for a lot of travellers, it’s proving to be an excellent alternative.
Most importantly, these routings allow us to continue offering fully protected package holidays with complete peace of mind.
You may also notice that some other operators are still selling Middle East transit routes but asking customers to sign waivers accepting responsibility for disruption or extra costs should the situation change. That’s a commercial decision for those businesses, but it isn’t something we feel comfortable asking our clients to do.
If we wouldn’t feel happy recommending a routing without a waiver, then we simply won’t offer it at all.
There’s also an important insurance point that many travellers don’t realise. Travelling against current FCDO advice can invalidate standard travel insurance policies entirely. That can affect cancellation cover, medical claims, disruption costs and even repatriation support. It’s an area that deserves very careful consideration before booking independently.
As always, our job is to help you travel confidently, not anxiously.
We are monitoring the situation constantly and the moment official advice changes, we’ll happily review the more direct Middle East routings again. Until then, we’ll continue recommending the options we feel offer the best balance of safety, value and reliability.
If you’d like us to look at the best routes, airlines or connection options for your holiday, just ask. We’ll always talk you through the pros and cons honestly and help you make the decision that feels right for you.