Where business travel stands one week into war in Iran

Thousands of travelers remained stranded less than one week after the US and Israel began conducting coordinated strikes on Iran, on Feb. 28. The war prompted airspace closures across the Middle East, including in major transit hubs that serve as popular transfer points for passengers on long-haul flights.

Dubai, the busiest airport in the world for international travel, closed for two days as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) experienced retaliatory strikes from Iran. It reopened on Mar. 2, with limited service, but as of Mar. 6, nearly 47% of flights scheduled into or out of the airport had been canceled, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. There were no flights from Doha or Bahrain, as airspace in these regions remained closed.

Among the stranded are those in the region for business. Dozens of Google employees, for example, were stuck in Dubai after attending a sales conference there, sources told CNBC.

Here’s what HR teams should know about the state of business travel, one week into the war.

State Department urged Americans to depart, but assistance has been delayed. On Mar. 2, the State Department recommended that Americans depart from more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, Qatar, and the UAE.

Officials recommended travelers fly commercial, however, airspace remained closed in many of these countries at the time.

On Mar. 4, five days after the war began, the White House updated a travel hotline to say it would offer travel assistance to Americans who were trying to leave the region, NOTUS reported. The hotline had previously indicated that travelers shouldn’t rely on the US government for help.

The first charter flight of Americans from the Middle East landed in the US on Mar. 5, according to the State Department. It declined to share details about the flight.

Some travelers charter flights from Riyadh, Muscat. Saudi Arabia and Oman emerged as alternative departure points for travelers stuck in cities like Dubai, provided they had the means to seek such alternatives.

Private security companies told SEMAFOR on Mar. 1 that they were driving customers from Dubai to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, then chartering private planes for them to leave. Travelers on these planes included senior executives at global finance firms, the outlet reported. Flights to Riyadh were paused on Mar. 3, however, after drone strikes hit the city.

Muscat, Oman also became a popular alternative for travelers seeking to leave the region, given its airspace remains open. Some travelers favored Oman because its visa requirements are less strict than Saudi Arabia’s, the founder of a luxury travel advisory firm told the Wall Street Journal. Some Oman-based airlines are running buses from the UAE to Muscat International Airport.

Employers issue security protocols, engage risk consultants. A number of employers issued travel advisories in light of the war.

Tata Consultancy Services, which is headquartered in Mumbai, halted all travel to and from the Middle East, the Economic Times reported. Meanwhile, Infosys, another IT consulting firm based in India, “strongly discouraged” employees from pursuing non-essential travel to the Middle East.

Finance firms out of Japan and Hong Kong also directed staff to hold off on Middle East travel, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, in the US, JPMorgan was working to help employees who were in the Middle East for business find flights out of the region, Business Insider reported on Mar. 4. JPMorgan expanded its operations in Dubai last year.

HR Brew reached out to nearly a dozen firms in finance, consulting, and tech to ask about how they were assisting or advising employees whose travel had been disrupted due to the war. A spokesperson for BlackRock said the firm was asking staff to follow local guidance to shelter in place, but had “also been helping business travellers find alternative travel to get home.” Sources with Google and Goldman Sachs said the companies were taking steps to support worker safety in light of the events, but didn’t speak specifically about travel.

Other employers hadn’t responded by time of publication.

Audrey Griebel Crabb, a business immigration associate attorney with the law firm Fragomen, wrote on LinkedIn that disruptions in the Middle East highlighted how “mobility barriers evolve faster than policy changes, impacting assignments and business travel with zero notice.”

Given that international mobility is likely to be unpredictable for some time, HR teams should “keep a careful watch on the status of visas and work permits, particularly for employees who may need to travel or renew documentation,” the Federation of International Employers, a global organization for multinational firms, recommended in a memo.