--- title: "Asian airlines raise fares as West Asia conflict drives fuel costs" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/278484048.md" description: "Asian airlines are raising ticket prices due to escalating Middle East conflict and rising fuel costs. Indian carriers have increased long-haul fares by 15%, while Vietnam warns of potential 70% hikes. Airlines in Asia are less hedged against oil price surges, prompting contingency plans to ground planes. Air New Zealand suspended earnings guidance due to volatile jet fuel prices. The aviation industry faces uncertainty, with shares of Asian carriers dropping significantly amid fluctuating oil prices. Some industry leaders remain cautiously optimistic about a resolution to the conflict." datetime: "2026-03-09T19:19:30.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/278484048.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/278484048.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/278484048.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # Asian airlines raise fares as West Asia conflict drives fuel costs **By Danny Lee and Mihir Mishra** Airlines in Asia are raising ticket prices and mapping out contingency plans that include grounding planes as the escalating Middle East conflict threatens to trigger the worst oil shock since the 1970s. Indian carriers have hiked prices on long-haul routes by 15 per cent and are considering further increases, people familiar with the matter said. In Vietnam, state media warned airfares could increase as much as 70 per cent given the country’s reliance on imported jet fuel. Airlines in the region aren’t as well hedged against high oil prices as rivals in Europe or the US, making them more vulnerable to sudden surges in jet fuel prices. That’s prompted low-cost Southeast Asian carriers to start gaming out scenarios where they would ground planes if jet fuel becomes unaffordable or inaccessible, according to people familiar with the matter. After surging toward $120 a barrel on Monday, oil tumbled late in US hours after President Donald Trump signaled the war will end soon. Trump also said that he plans to waive oil-related sanctions and have the US Navy escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane that typically handles a fifth of global crude flows. “Panic buttons have been set off everywhere,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities SA. “Airlines in Asia who have a weak hedging program are very vulnerable with the current jet-fuel pricing if they sold tickets at earlier price points than where we are now.” Some budget airlines with low profit margins may go bust if the current environment lasts for more than three months, one of the people said. Airlines worldwide could be forced to ground thousands of planes because of the war, with the weakest carriers halting operations, Michael Linenberg, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG, wrote in a note. Air New Zealand Ltd. on Tuesday suspended its earnings guidance because wildly fluctuating jet fuel prices mean the assumptions it made less than two weeks ago are no longer valid. “Due to this unprecedented volatility, the jet fuel price assumption underlying Air New Zealand’s guidance is no longer appropriate,” the airline said in a statement. “The crisis is expected to meaningfully affect second-half earnings and accordingly, the airline has suspended FY2026 guidance until fuel markets and operating conditions stabilize.” These nascent signs of distress in the aviation industry underscore the widening fallout from the war, which shows no signs of abating over a week after the US and Israel first struck Iran. Flights have already been severely disrupted with the Middle East’s biggest airlines and airports coming to a near standstill, and the cascading threat to fuel supply is now putting air travel across the globe in a protracted state of uncertainty. Some industry players are clinging to optimism that the conflict will end within months, rather than years. “My own personal view is this is shorter-lived,” said John Plueger, CEO of Air Lease Corp. “The main point here is the world doesn’t stop. It may be put on hold.” Deutsche Lufthansa AG Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said last week that the German airline group stands to enjoy “a relative advantage” when rivals are forced to raise ticket prices because the airline is hedged against price swings. The company is also putting more capacity on Asian and African routes given Middle East rivals are still far from operating normally, he said. But shares of Asian carriers are likely to remain volatile as uncertainty persists. They tumbled on Monday — Asiana Airlines fell to its lowest in more than 21 years — as oil prices soared above $100 a barrel, while the BI Asia Pacific Airlines index fell to its lowest in more than five years. InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., which operates India’s largest airline IndiGo, slipped at much as 8.4 per cent in Mumbai before paring some of day’s losses. ### Related Stocks - [AIZ.AU](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AIZ.AU.md) ## Related News & Research - [Air New Zealand perluas kemitraan interline dengan Air Chathams untuk koneksi Chatham Islands mulai 13 Agustus 2026](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295583006.md) - [Trump To Flood US With 300,000 Tons Of Tariff-Free Ground Beef To Tame Prices Ahead Of Midterms](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296651459.md) - [OpenAI Suspends AI Model Testing for Two Weeks to Strengthen Safety](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296284292.md) - [Peacock raises prices as specialty streamers gain ground](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296351030.md) - [Rise Nano Optics Joins the Vision Council, a Leading Optical Trade Association, Expanding Access to Key Optical Relationship | RNOLF Stock News](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296448147.md) --- > **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**