Travel News · 10 min read · March 10, 2026

Your holiday and the Iran conflict: everything UK travellers need to know

The short version: most holidays are unaffected. Here's the full picture — your rights, your costs, your options, and why there's more reason to travel than you might think.

Short on time? Let us summarise this guide for you.

The conflict that began on 28 February 2026 has disrupted travel in and around the Middle East, with over 20,000 flights cancelled and Dubai airport temporarily damaged. But for the vast majority of UK holidaymakers — those flying to Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, and other European destinations — travel is operating normally. The FCDO advises against travel to Israel and Palestine, and urges caution in some Gulf states, but no mainstream European holiday destination is affected. UK law gives you strong protections: package holiday bookers can claim a full refund if FCDO advice changes, flight cancellations entitle you to a refund or rerouting regardless of cause, and ATOL protects you if your tour operator fails. Airlines including easyJet and Ryanair are heavily hedged against fuel costs through mid-2026, meaning fares on European routes are unlikely to spike sharply in the near term. If you were booked to the Middle East, destinations like Albania, Montenegro, Malta and Portugal's Alentejo offer exceptional alternatives without the crowds.

What's actually happening — and what isn't

On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched joint military strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and triggering retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the wider Middle East region. Iranian strikes hit targets in Gulf states including the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Dubai International Airport — one of the world's busiest — was temporarily closed after drone damage, and airspace across much of the Middle East shut down almost immediately.

The disruption to aviation has been significant. More than 20,000 flights have been cancelled since the conflict began, and over a million travellers worldwide found themselves stranded. Major airlines including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic suspended or rerouted services to affected areas.

But here is the crucial context: the conflict is geographically specific. The disruption is concentrated in Iran, Israel, the Gulf states and the airspace above them. Europe is entirely unaffected from a travel safety perspective. The sun is still shining on the Costa del Sol. The Acropolis is still open. The Algarve is still beautiful. If your holiday is in Europe — and the overwhelming majority of UK package holidays are — your trip is almost certainly going ahead exactly as planned.

Is your destination affected? Quick-check guide

The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is the official source of travel advice. This is what it currently says for the destinations most popular with UK holidaymakers. Last updated: 10 March 2026. Check the live FCDO advice here.

Important: This table reflects FCDO advice at the date above. Advice is changing rapidly. Always check gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice before you travel — and bookmark it now.

Is it safe to fly right now?

A destination-by-destination safety guide for UK holidaymakers, including what FCDO advice levels actually mean.

Your rights if things go wrong

This is where the reassuring news really starts. UK law gives holidaymakers some of the strongest consumer protections in the world. Most people don't realise quite how well protected they are — so here is the plain-English version.

If you booked a package holiday

A package holiday — legally — is any booking that combines two or more travel services (flights, accommodation, car hire, tours) bought for one price from one provider. If that describes your booking, you have the most powerful protections available.

Under the Package Travel Regulations 2018, if the FCDO formally advises against travel to your destination before you depart, this almost certainly qualifies as what the law calls "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances." That means you can cancel without paying any fees, and your operator must refund you in full — within 14 days. No vouchers. No credits. Cash back.

The golden rule: do not cancel before the FCDO advice changes. If you cancel early out of anxiety, you may lose your cancellation fee. Wait for official advice, then act.

If your flight is cancelled

Under UK261 — the UK's version of the EU's passenger rights law — if your airline cancels your flight for any reason (including war or airspace closure), you are legally entitled to either a full refund of your ticket or an alternative flight to your destination. Your money does not disappear. You will not get the additional cash compensation payment on top (war counts as an "extraordinary circumstance" that exempts airlines from that), but your ticket cost is safe.

If you're stuck at the airport

Regardless of why you're delayed, your airline must provide food and drinks while you wait, and — if you're delayed overnight — hotel accommodation and transport to it. Keep every receipt.

If your travel company collapses

Every UK package holiday that includes a flight must by law be ATOL-protected. Your ATOL certificate — which should be in your original booking confirmation — is your safety net. If your operator fails, the Civil Aviation Authority will either arrange for you to complete your holiday or issue a full refund. Check your confirmation now and keep it somewhere easy to find.

If you paid by credit card

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act makes your credit card company jointly liable for any purchase between £100 and £30,000. If something goes wrong with a booking you made on a credit card, you have an additional route to a refund — even for independently booked flights and hotels that fall outside package holiday protection.

Your full holiday rights guide

Package Travel Regulations, UK261, ATOL and Section 75 — all explained in plain English, with real case examples.

Will your holiday cost more?

Oil prices have surged above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022 — and since jet fuel accounts for 20–30% of an airline's operating costs, that matters. The honest answer is: it depends on your airline, your destination, and when you're travelling.

The good news for European short-haul travellers

The airlines that dominate European short-haul routes from UK airports — easyJet and Ryanair — both locked in their fuel prices months ago through financial contracts called hedging. easyJet has hedged 84% of its fuel needs for the first half of 2026 at pre-crisis prices, and Ryanair is similarly protected at around 84% for the current quarter. In practical terms, this means neither airline is under immediate pressure to spike fares on European routes.

The protection does thin as the year progresses — easyJet drops to 62% hedged in the second half of 2026 — so if you're planning a late summer or autumn trip, booking sooner rather than later makes sense.

Long-haul and Gulf-routed travel

If your holiday previously routed through Dubai or Doha, the picture is more complicated. Gulf airline routes are disrupted, airspace is partly closed, and rerouted flights are taking longer and costing more to operate. Long-haul travellers face the most significant fare pressure and the most disrupted routing options.

If you've already booked

Your price is fixed. Airlines cannot add fuel surcharges to tickets already purchased. Whatever you paid is what you pay. This is one more reason to book — and lock in prices — sooner rather than later.

How Holiday Extras can help during the disruption

How to contact us and what we're doing to help our customers

Should you change your destination?

If you were booked to travel to the Middle East, or you simply feel more comfortable choosing somewhere clearly unaffected, there are some genuinely outstanding alternatives — and some of them are better than the trip you originally planned.

The obvious pivot is to popular Mediterranean destinations: Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey. These are all operating normally. But here's a thought worth having: millions of other people are making exactly the same pivot, which means Ibiza, Santorini and the Algarve could be busier — and pricier — than usual this summer.

The smartest move is to go one step further. Destinations that are excellent but haven't appeared on anyone's instinctive "substitute for Dubai" list include:

• Albania — Riviera beaches, extraordinary food, and prices that make Greece look expensive
• Montenegro — the medieval town of Kotor surrounded by dramatic Adriatic cliffs, without the cruise-ship crowds of Dubrovnik
• Malta — warm, English-speaking, short direct flights, and three civilisations of history on one small island
• Alentejo, Portugal — the peaceful, rural alternative to the Algarve, with medieval hilltop villages and UNESCO-certified stargazing
• Puglia, Italy — the heel of Italy's boot: whitewashed trulli villages, spectacular coastline, authentic food, and far fewer tourists than Tuscany or the Amalfi Coast
• Slovenia — Alpine lakes, a fairy-tale capital city, and a country small enough to drive across in a morning

The smarter holiday alternatives nobody is rushing to (yet)

Don't just rebook Dubai. Here are the destinations that offer everything you were looking for — without the crowds that will follow everyone else's pivot.

Your 7-point action checklist

Whether you have an existing booking or you're thinking about making one, here is everything you need to do — and in the right order.

• Check the FCDO advice for your destination today — and bookmark it. gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice. If it changes to "advise against travel," your package holiday refund rights activate immediately.
• Find your ATOL certificate — it's in your original booking confirmation. Keep it somewhere you can find it quickly.
• Confirm whether your holiday is a package — if you booked flights and accommodation together from one provider, it almost certainly is, and the full force of UK consumer law is behind you.
• Don't cancel before FCDO advice changes — cancelling early out of anxiety may cost you your cancellation fee. Wait for official advice, then act with your rights in place.
• Book summer flights sooner rather than later — airlines' fuel hedging contracts provide pricing stability now, but that protection begins to thin from late summer onwards.
• Check your travel insurance policy for war exclusions — most standard policies exclude war, but if you bought your policy before the conflict began and the FCDO subsequently changes its advice, many policies will cover cancellation. Read your policy carefully, or speak to your insurer.
• Use a credit card for any new bookings — Section 75 protection applies automatically to purchases between £100 and £30,000, at no extra cost to you.

What the conflict means for your holiday budget

Oil prices, fuel surcharges, and the "book now vs wait" question — answered honestly for UK holidaymakers.

Summary

Travel is resilient, because travel is important to so many of us. After every major disruption in living memory — 9/11, the 2003 Iraq War, the Arab Spring, the financial crisis, COVID — the industry has recovered, routes have reopened, and people have continued to enjoy their holidays. The same will be true this time.

The vast majority of UK holidaymakers this year will travel to their destination, enjoy their break, and return home without a single disruption caused by this conflict. The information in this guide is designed to make sure that if you are one of the smaller number affected, you're not caught off guard. You have rights, you have protections, and you have excellent options.

We'll keep this page updated as the situation develops. If you have a specific question about your booking, the guides linked above go into much more detail — and our team is always on hand to help.