As Iran war closes Middle East skies, how high can Cathay Pacific fares fly?

Travellers are paying double the usual airfare on Cathay Pacific Airways flights from more than 50 cities to Hong Kong as the Iran war drives up demand for routes that avoid the conflict zone, with London, Madrid and Chennai seeing the steepest surges, the South China Morning Post has found.The US-Israeli attacks on Iran and subsequent retaliatory strikes that spilled over into neighbouring Gulf states over the course of a week have forced much of the Middle East’s airspace to remain closed, pushing airfares higher globally as airlines and passengers scramble to divert and rebook flights.An SCMP reporter tracked ticket prices for the earliest available direct flights by Cathay Pacific from 57 destinations across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Africa – all routes available outside the Middle East, mainland China and Taiwan.On average, the cheapest available ticket price for flights departing from Saturday onwards has surged by 93 per cent compared with the upper range of typical prices tracked by Google Flights over the past 12 months.Airfares on routes from Europe saw the steepest surges. While one-way economy tickets were unavailable, a business-class seat on Cathay’s London-Hong Kong flight on Saturday cost HK$53,486 (US$6,837) – about 600 per cent higher than the typical price of HK$7,400 for this period.The second-priciest ticket overall was from Madrid, costing HK$51,258 (US$6,553) for a business-class seat – roughly 500 per cent more than the usual HK$8,500 fare.