German aviation giant Lufthansa on Friday warned of heightened uncertainty due to the ongoing Middle East conflict, highlighting how vulnerable air traffic remains to geopolitical shocks.
The war, which began last weekend with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliatory attacks by Tehran, has caused the largest disruption to air travel since the Covid pandemic.
Airspace across the region was forced to close, and major transit hubs such as Dubai and Doha were shuttered, affecting long-haul passenger flights.
“The war in the Middle East proves once again how exposed air traffic is and how vulnerable it remains, even though the industry is now more resilient to crises than it used to be,” said Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa CEO, as the group announced its 2025 results.
“The massive concentration of global traffic flows via the Gulf hubs is increasingly proving to be a geopolitical Achilles’ heel.”
Outlining its outlook for 2026, the group — which operates Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines and Brussels Airlines and has acquired a stake in Italy’s ITA — cautioned that profit forecasts were now more difficult.
“Developments in the Middle East and the associated geopolitical consequences for the global economy increase medium- and long-term forecast uncertainty,” the company said.
Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline group by sales, also warned of “increased volatility in the oil markets” due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the process of cutting 4,000 jobs, mainly administrative positions in Germany.
CEO Carsten Spohr said the turnaround is making progress, with the main airline returning to profit, and stressed that it remains a “top priority”.
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