Booking data suggests Middle East war is putting people off flying

The fighting has "negatively impacted not only flights to and from the Middle East but also caused a global slowdown in the aviation industry," ForwardKeys said, pointing to reduced bookings from the Americas and Middle East of 10 and 9 percentage points respectively, with Africa, Asia and Europe down 2 percentage points each.

Compared to the three weeks leading up to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad attack on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage, the ensuing period has seen bookings to the Middle East fall by 26 percentage points, with those to Europe and the Americas down 3 and 6 percentage points.

The weeks since have seen Israel launch an air and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, with 11,000 dead according to estimates from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. Flight bookings to to Tel-Aviv have in the meantime dropped by 155 percentage points

Elsewhere in the region, bookings for Saudi Arabia are down almost 70 percentage points, with tourism-dependent economies Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt down by between 35 and over 50 percentage points.

The was is being covered extensively on television and, relative to bigger, deadlier wars elsewhere, being heavily discussed on social media. Describing it as a "catastrophic, heartbreaking, human tragedy," ForwardKeys’ vice president Oliver Ponti said not only is it "bound to put people off travelling to the region" but at the same time has "dented consumer confidence in travelling elsewhere too."

The apparent drop in bookings came after global air traffic increased by over 30% year-on-year in September, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), topping 97% of what was recorded in September 2019, shortly before the the start of the Covid pandemic and related travel restrictions.