Australia Urged to Reconsider Middle East Airport Travel Warning as ‘Euro Summer’ Approaches

As over 100,000 Australian travelers prepare to embark on their European summer holidays, a significant call has been made for the Australian government to reassess its current travel advisories.

Specifically, the government faces pressure to downgrade its travel warning for Australians transiting through key Middle Eastern airports. A prominent industry expert has criticized Australia’s current stance, stating the nation is “far behind the rest of the world” in this regard.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has maintained a Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ warning for large parts of the Middle East due to ongoing regional conflicts. This advisory includes major transit hubs like Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Doha in Qatar, which are frequently used by Australians en route to Europe.

A critical consequence of the Level 4 warning is that most standard travel insurance policies do not provide coverage for destinations under such advisories. This places Australians who choose to transit through these key regional hubs at risk of invalidating their travel insurance, even if they are merely passing through.

The government’s Smartraveller website explicitly states: “‘Do not travel’ advice applies to transit and layovers in the UAE. Even if you don’t plan to leave the airport. If you travel to or transit through the UAE, you may be unable to leave. Your safety will be at risk.”

In light of the anticipated exodus of over 100,000 Australians for the European summer, the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA) has urged the government to revise the warning specifically for Middle Eastern airports to a Level 3 ‘Reconsider Your Need to Travel’. Such a change would reinstate vital insurance protection for Australian travelers.

Dean Long, Chief Executive of ATIA, clarified their position to news.com.au: “We’re not calling for the whole country to go down to a level three. We are just saying that the airport can go to a level three, which will give people that full travel insurance protection that they need while they’re in transit.”

Long emphasized the distinction: “The government has got to make the decision to recognise the realities of the transit passenger is different to those people looking to stay in the UAE for a long period of time.”

According to Long, weekly flights between Australia and the Middle East have decreased from 153 before the conflict to 90, yet over 153,000 Australians have transited through the region in the last six weeks alone.

“A lot of people were risking the fact that some policies won’t provide cover for them while they’re in the Middle East,” he added.

He further explained the practical implications of a Level 3 airport warning: “If you roll your ankle if you get off the plane, or you get appendicitis, or any of those accidents which can happen, those true emergencies that are not a result of the conflict and not a result of people looking to take excessive risk … then it will just give those people the little bit of help that they need.”

Long highlighted that aligning with other major nations like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, which have less stringent airport transit warnings, would be a positive step for Australia.

“We’ve reached this point unfortunately, where we are so far behind the rest of the world,” he lamented.

He elaborated: “Most other countries are at a ‘reconsider your need to travel’ not a ‘do not travel’. And that’s a real recognition of the important role that the UAE and Qatar in particular, have as major transit hubs. And it’s a demonstration of where those countries are viewing the conflict and looking at what the real risk is for 90 minutes on the ground versus a five day holiday.”

Long also cautioned that maintaining the Level 4 warning could erode public trust in the Smartraveller system.

“At the moment, we’ve got all of these Australians travelling back to Australia and telling their friends and family that they had no issues in transiting through the UAE or through Qatar,” he stated. “And all that’s going to do in the end is make people less trusting of the Smartraveller system, and we don’t want that. We want people to listen to Smartraveller, we want them to follow the advice.”

In response to inquiries regarding the proposed changes, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) reiterated to news.com.au that “the safety of Australians is our highest priority.”

The spokesperson concluded by emphasizing the ongoing volatility: “The situation in the Middle East region remains volatile and there remains a risk of attacks and escalation which is why we continue to advise all Australians not to travel to Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.”