Escalating hostilities between Iran, Israel and the United States forced eight Middle-Eastern countries to close or severely restrict their airspace on 1 March. Hong Kong’s TVB News reports that Air China, China Eastern and China Southern responded the same evening with blanket refund and re-booking waivers for passengers ticketed to Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh between 24 February and 15 March. At least 18 round-trip services scheduled for 1–3 March have already been cancelled, according to VariFlight.
The three carriers say travellers can reroute once, change travel dates, or obtain a full refund at no extra cost. Corporate travel managers should note that some GDSs are coding the changes as ‘involuntary’, meaning service fees are automatically suppressed. However, any new itinerary that includes a transit in a third region may trigger fresh visa or transit-permit requirements.
![Mainland Airlines Offer Free Changes as Middle-East Conflict Shuts Gulf Airspace]()
To help companies and individual travellers navigate those sudden documentation hurdles, VisaHQ offers a streamlined online service where users can check updated entry rules and obtain visas or transit permits entirely digitally; its China portal at https://www.visahq.com/china/ even provides expedited processing options, ensuring re-ticketed passengers avoid costly delays.
The ad-hoc waivers highlight the fragility of connectivity between China and the Gulf, a corridor relied upon by energy, construction and logistics firms. In 2025 the “big three” mainland airlines operated a combined 66 weekly flights to the UAE and Saudi Arabia; OAG data show nearly a third of those frequencies are now affected. Alternative routings via Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Istanbul add between three and seven hours’ block time.
Companies with expatriate rotations in the Middle East are advised to pre-clear multiple-entry visas for crew and critical staff and to budget for potential per-diem overruns caused by extended layovers.
The three carriers say travellers can reroute once, change travel dates, or obtain a full refund at no extra cost. Corporate travel managers should note that some GDSs are coding the changes as ‘involuntary’, meaning service fees are automatically suppressed. However, any new itinerary that includes a transit in a third region may trigger fresh visa or transit-permit requirements.
To help companies and individual travellers navigate those sudden documentation hurdles, VisaHQ offers a streamlined online service where users can check updated entry rules and obtain visas or transit permits entirely digitally; its China portal at https://www.visahq.com/china/ even provides expedited processing options, ensuring re-ticketed passengers avoid costly delays.
The ad-hoc waivers highlight the fragility of connectivity between China and the Gulf, a corridor relied upon by energy, construction and logistics firms. In 2025 the “big three” mainland airlines operated a combined 66 weekly flights to the UAE and Saudi Arabia; OAG data show nearly a third of those frequencies are now affected. Alternative routings via Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Istanbul add between three and seven hours’ block time.
Companies with expatriate rotations in the Middle East are advised to pre-clear multiple-entry visas for crew and critical staff and to budget for potential per-diem overruns caused by extended layovers.
