Emirates airline (EK) will roll out a package of incentives aimed at winning back passengers worried about the protracted Iran war (which prompted the carrier to roll out UAE’s flag livery on its A380), focusing on safety assurances and reliable travel connections rather than lower fares. Emirates President Sir Tim Clark made the announcement on 9 June 2026 on the sidelines of an industry summit in Berlin, in what Reuters described as his first interview with a global news agency since the conflict began in late February. The state-backed carrier is committing to maintain its full flight schedules despite rising operational costs, elevated fuel prices, and ongoing airspace restrictions across the Middle East.
The conflict began on 28 February 2026, when the United States and Israel conducted coordinated military strikes on targets inside Iran. Iran responded with retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the wider Gulf region, including strikes targeting the vicinity of Dubai International Airport (DXB). The war has left Emirates operating at around 65% of its pre-conflict capacity, with approximately 13% of the airports in its global network still inaccessible due to ongoing airspace restrictions.
What Incentives Emirates is Offering Passengers Amid the Iran War
Emirates President Tim Clark confirmed the airline will not compete on price during the current period of conflict-driven uncertainty. Instead, the carrier will offer what Clark described as “all sorts of incentives other than price” to encourage passengers to fly through Dubai again.
In a Reuters report published on 9 June 2026, Clark elaborated on what those incentives would look like. “That could be new means of ensuring their safety of operation, for instance,” he told Reuters journalists at the Berlin Aviation Summit, adding that the airline would also address concerns about cancelled flights and passengers getting stranded.
Clark was explicit that Emirates would rebook stranded passengers onto rival carriers where necessary. “We’ll take care of all of that, including flying them on other carriers if necessary to bring them home or get the kids into school,” he said. The assurance directly addresses one of the most pressing concerns raised by travellers since the conflict began.
Why Emirates Cannot Cut Ticket Prices Right Now
Clark explained the reason Emirates is unable to offer fare reductions to win back passengers. The cost of operating long-haul flights through the region has risen sharply, driven largely by fuel price volatility.
“The ticket price is very much conditional on what the oil price starts, and at the moment the oil price fluctuates,” Clark told Reuters. Oil prices have risen to around $90 a barrel as a direct consequence of the Iran conflict, which has disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Clark predicted that oil prices would eventually fall from around $90 to around $70 a barrel once a resolution is found. “And then we’ll be back,” he said. “But it’s a question of how long it takes.”
The fuel cost pressure Emirates now faces echoes a pattern described in a prior Gulf News report, in which Clark noted that fuel accounted for 43% of the airline’s costs. A sustained increase in oil prices to $150–$160 per barrel would force the airline to review its pricing strategy entirely, he had said.
Emirates Safety Strategy
A core part of Emirates’ passenger reassurance strategy centres on demonstrating operational safety through intelligence sharing and active engagement with governments and regulators. Clark said the airline is in close contact with regional governments and that intelligence sharing with airlines is extensive to ensure safe operations.
Clark specifically said Emirates is pushing back against what it considers overly broad conflict-zone advisories. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued Conflict Zone Information Bulletins (CZIBs) advising airlines to avoid all altitudes and flight levels within a wide range of Middle East airspace, covering Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah FIR.
“We are talking to them,” Clark said, referring to governments and regulators in the region, while acknowledging their duty to protect passengers. “We rely on governments to be a little less restrictive in the warnings they issue about travelling across the Middle East.” The airline’s goal is to have restrictions eased in areas that the airline considers safe to fly, based on real-time intelligence data.
The EASA Conflict Zone Warnings Squeezing Gulf Airspace
The EASA Conflict Zone Information Bulletins are central to understanding the pressure Emirates now faces. These bulletins were first issued on 28 February 2026, the same day US and Israeli strikes hit Iran, and have been repeatedly extended and revised since.
Under the most recent bulletin, EASA advises operators to avoid Iran, Iraq and Lebanon airspace entirely, and exercise caution in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The most recent version of the bulletin notes that a temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran, announced on 8 April 2026, has been extended, but states that its implementation remains uncertain and therefore requires further monitoring.
Airspace analysts at Safe Airspace recorded further escalations in June 2026. Iranian missiles and drones struck Kuwait International Airport (KWI), damaging Terminal 1 and triggering new Flight Information Region (FIR) restrictions. The primary risk across the region is described as missile and drone activity linked to the Iran conflict, including strikes targeting military facilities and defensive air defence responses across the Gulf.
Airlines including Lufthansa Group, Air France-KLM, and Singapore Airlines have rerouted Asia-Europe services to avoid the region. Cathay Pacific has expanded direct Hong Kong-London and Hong Kong-Paris frequencies to bypass Gulf hubs entirely. For Emirates, whose entire business model is built around Dubai as a global transit hub, these dynamics pose a direct structural threat.
How The Iran War Has Hit Middle East Aviation
The scale of disruption caused by the Iran war to Middle East aviation is significant. Regional aviation hubs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Bahrain typically process around 526,000 passengers per day, but that number dropped sharply after airspace closures forced flights to be grounded.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated the conflict was costing the Middle East travel and tourism industry €515 million a day. The WTTC projected that inbound arrivals to the Middle East could decline between 11% and 27% year-on-year in 2026 due to the conflict. In absolute terms, this translates to between 23 and 38 million fewer international visitors compared to pre-war forecasts, and a loss in visitor spend of between $34 billion and $56 billion.
In the immediate aftermath of the conflict’s outbreak, Al Jazeera reported that some 21,300 flights were cancelled at seven major airports including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi. Paul Charles, CEO of luxury travel consultancy PC Agency, told Al Jazeera: “It’s pretty well the biggest shutdown we’ve seen certainly since the COVID pandemic.”
Emirates Capacity Today and the First-Class Problem
Emirates is currently operating at more than 65% of its pre-conflict capacity, with only around 13% of the airports in its network still blocked. Clark shared that figure in his April 2026 appearance at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Berlin, which was conducted via videolink from Dubai.
However, the impact on premium cabins has been particularly pronounced. Clark acknowledged in his June Reuters interview that the conflict had left first-class cabins around half full. For Emirates, which operates some of the world’s most profitable and recognisable first-class products, this represents a meaningful revenue drag that price-cutting in economy class cannot compensate for.
Clark nonetheless expressed confidence in a summer rebound. He predicted Emirates would become the most profitable airline by the end of 2026, citing the strength of underlying demand for Dubai as a destination and transit point. “What we have found is that whenever we’ve been through these traumas before, the strength of demand [remains] so strong,” he said.
Emirates Compared to Other Airlines
The Iran war’s impact on aviation extends well beyond Emirates. Comparing Emirates’ response to that of other carriers reveals the different strategies Gulf and global airlines are deploying.
Qatar Airways resumed daily flights to Dubai and Sharjah as one of the early signs of schedule restoration in the region. Jazeera Airways planned 1,000 flights after the initial disruption, using Saudi-backed operations to help restore services across 20 destinations. Gulf Air extended Dammam flights to support passengers whose usual routes remained disrupted.
In contrast, European carriers took a more cautious approach. Lufthansa Group, Air France-KLM, and others rerouted Asia-Europe services entirely rather than maintaining schedules through the affected region. This divergence reflects the different risk calculations and financial exposures of hub-dependent Gulf carriers versus point-to-point European operators.
As reported by CNBC, the scale of passenger disruption reached beyond the immediate conflict zone. More than 1,600 tourists were stranded at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Indonesia, after five flights to the Middle East were cancelled or postponed in the early days of the conflict. Airlines including Emirates issued waivers allowing affected travellers to rebook without extra fees or fare penalties.
Clark’s Long-Term View
Clark offered a specific timeline for how Emirates expects the recovery to unfold. He said that once the Strait of Hormuz reopens, there should be one to two months of disruption before conditions return to normal.
He also rejected the idea that competitors would be able to capitalise on Emirates’ difficulties. The airline is banking on its history of recovering quickly from crises and on the enduring appeal of Dubai as a global destination and transit hub. Clark made this point explicitly at the April CAPA summit, where he noted that rivals have limited capacity to absorb diverted traffic at scale.
Clark made a broader prediction about how quickly the market can recover once political conditions allow.
“If a solution is found and this goes away in the next two to four weeks, by the end of the summer, nobody will remember what has happened,” he said, as reported by Gulf Business.