India's government has created a Rs50 billion ($527 million) pool of credit support for airlines facing financial challenges due to the Iran conflict. A 5 May statement says that the country's Cabinet approved the funding as part of the broader Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, which will guarantee around 90% coverage for defaults from eligible airline borrowers "to tide over any short-term liquidity mismatches in view of [the] West Asia Crisis." The guarantee will be capped at Rs15 billion per borrower, subject to conditions, running for seven years from the date of disbursement, and with a moratorium of two years. The Iran conflict, which has been ongoing since 28 February, has affected most Indian carriers, which historically have operated large amounts of capacity to the Middle East, often catering to the large expatriate travel market there. The guarantees come after Indian ratings agency ICRA warned in late March that there was "financial stress among select airlines" in the country. While it did not identify which carriers were under stress, several observers note that SpiceJet appears to be vulnerable, amid reports that it has delayed salary payments to staff this year, despite a September 2024 capital raising from institutional investors that raised Rs30 billion. That allowed it to clear several debts to lessors, MROs and regulatory authorities, and helped to finance repairs on some of its aircraft, but since then it has struggled to meet targets to increase its operational fleet, while it reported a Rs2.7 billion loss in the December quarter.

British Airways has advertised job vacancies for "ground taxi pilots" to reposition aircraft between terminals at Chicago O'Hare airport. The Oneworld carrier's flights arrive at O'Hare's Terminal 5 but depart from the Terminal 3 gates of partner American Airlines. IAG subsidiary BA tells Cirium that its recruitment of locally based pilots to taxi aircraft between the terminals is "nothing new". Departures were transferred to Terminal 3 in 2024. The job advert on BA's website indicated that recruits would "play a critical role in helping achieve on-time performance by safely ground taxiing British Airways Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft" at the US hub. It targeted active or former airline transport pilots with "recent experience" as a 777/787 captain or first officer and a "high degree of familiarity with procedures at Chicago O'Hare". Pilots work in pairs to taxi aircraft between the terminals. "You will operate as pilot in command or second pilot during ground taxi operations at Chicago O’Hare airport," says BA. The job was described in the ad as an "exciting opportunity", with an annual base salary of $90,000-100,000 on offer.

Bookings for long-haul flights to Dubai in July are dramatically below last year's levels, with sales down 50% on some routes. Cirium advanced-bookings data shows that for flights from London area airports to Dubai – the busiest corridor into the Middle Eastern hub, with Emirates alone operating 12 services per day up until the start of the outbreak of the Iran war in February – there were around half the bookings in the week to 30 April for July flying dates, compared with the same period of 2025. Likewise, from Paris Charles de Gaulle, the decline over the same period was 47%. Sales from New York area airports were down 54%. A similar dynamic can be seen on routes from Asia. From Singapore, flights booked in the week to 30 April for July travel to Dubai were down 40%, while from Bangkok they were down 54%. Cirium does not publish the number of bookings made within its advance-bookings data, only the changes. The data tracks sales from the three largest global distribution systems but not direct sales with airlines, and thus captures around 40% of the market. The findings demonstrate that despite moves by several Middle Eastern airlines to ramp capacity up quickly as airspace is fully reopened to traffic, it may prove difficult to entice travellers back to the region. Emirates, the largest airline in Dubai and a key player in connecting the region to the world, announced on 4 May that it had returned to near-full operations, with 96% of its global network having been restored. As of that date, the airline was operating to 137 destinations with over 1,300 weekly frequencies. "The airline is offering more flights, more seats and more options each day while reaffirming Dubai's position as a vital hub through which global travel moves," it says. Yet perhaps underlining the fragility of the situation, further missile and drone strikes were reportedly launched by Iran against the UAE on 5 May, causing disruption to flight operations. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority lifted airspace restrictions across the country on 3 May, but Cirium data shows that scheduled flights at two key airports are still being reduced. Schedules processed on 1 May show that, compared with the week prior, carriers removed 607 weekly flights that were due to depart or arrive in the UAE from their May schedule. That included 518 removed by Emirates. Cuts were also made by Air India Express, Oman Air and Middle East Airlines. Belarusian carrier Belavia now shows as not operating any flights to Dubai this month, having just recently programmed a daily rotation from Minsk.