The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that the conflict in the Middle East is having at least a $600 million impact each day on visitor spending but expects that the sector will recover quickly when the conflict ends. The Council says in an 11 March statement that the Middle East accounts for 5% of global arrivals and 14% of transit traffic, and the current disruption to key hubs including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Bahrain is having knock-on effects across the tourism value chain. It bases the calculation on a pre-conflict forecast of $207 billion in international visitor spend for the region this year. Despite that impact, WTTC president and chief executive Gloria Guevara says "history shows that the sector can recover quickly, especially when governments support travelers through hotel support or repatriation. "Our analysis of previous crises demonstrates that security-related incidents often see the fastest tourism recovery times, in some cases as quickly as two months, when governments and industry work together to restore traveler confidence." Data shows that flight cancellations in the Middle East continue to trend lower but are still far from their historic levels as most carriers prioritise getting passengers stuck in their hubs to their final destinations. Flight tracking data shows that on 11 March just under 37% of scheduled flights were cancelled or did not operate, a similar level to when the US and Israel started their bombing campaign in Iran on 28 February. By raw numbers, there were 3,386 flights were scheduled on 11 March, of which 1,248 did not operate or were cancelled. In comparison, on the same date in 2025, there were 5,090 flights scheduled to depart from the region.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Air India Express and owned by Avilease has sustained nosewheel damage during a hard landing at Phuket International airport on 11 March. Airports of Thailand states that the aircraft was operating flight AB938 from Hyderabad when it experienced a "malfunction on the runway" while landing at 11:24am local time. "Preliminary inspections indicated that the aircraft experienced a hard landing, which caused damage to the nose landing gear, preventing the aircraft from immediately vacating the runway. However, no injuries have been reported," the airport operator says. There were seven crew members, 131 passengers and two infants on board the aircraft, but no injuries were reported. As the aircraft was immobilised on the runway, Phuket airport was closed until the early evening to allow it to be moved. Fleets data shows that the aircraft bears MSN 43836 and was delivered new to Air India Express in May 2025, when Avilease purchased it through a sale-and-leaseback transaction.

Latvia's Air Baltic continued to expand its ACMI offering last year, with the business segment's share of capacity by number of flights rising to 38%. The carrier operated 30,000 ACMI services last year, up 15% on 2024 and compared with a total of just over 78,000 flights, it said while disclosing its annual results. In comparison, its network flights increased by just 3% to 48,000. Total load factor reduced by 1 percentage point to 80.2%. "ACMI and charter services remained an integral part of Air Baltic's business model, contributing to operational flexibility and revenue diversification, with charter operations totalling above 650 flights during the year," says the carrier. It has been hit hard by the war in Ukraine and the ongoing groundings that have resulted from Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issues which affect its Airbus A220s. The groundings have forced it to bring in wet-lease capacity to ensure it can operate its scheduled services, even while it expands its own ACMI offering to other airlines. Last year, it agreed ACMI deals with Lufthansa Group and Air Serbia. In January, Air Baltic said wet-lease activity accounted for a fifth of its 2025 revenue, with an average of 14 Airbus A220s on ACMI during the year, a 19% rise on 2024 and over a quarter of its total fleet. The figure reached 20 at the summer peak. Air Baltic has posted an adjusted EBITDAR of €144 million ($167 million) for 2025, down €40 million on last year, on revenue that grew 4% to €779 million. It attributes its weaker operating result to higher operating costs and restricted aircraft availability, although this was partly offset by the falling dollar. Ticket sales were soft at the start of 2025, but yields improved during the second half, it adds, "supported by efficient capacity deployment, targeted pricing actions, and strengthening demand across core markets". Chief executive Erno Hilden describes 2025 as a "challenging year, operationally", with the industry facing maintenance issues which required it to revise its schedules. "Despite these disruptions and continued cost pressures, we saw steady demand for our services and further development across both network and ACMI operations," he adds. "While external factors continued to affect financial performance, the total result improved compared to the previous year, supported by more favourable operating conditions in the second half."