US-Iran war: Qantas Airways shares fall 10% to lowest levels in 10 months amid airport closures and oil price rise

Shares of Qantas Airways, Australia's flagship airline, nosedived over 10% on Monday to their lowest levels in 10 months on the back of the US-Israel-Iran conflict over the weekend as airline operations were disrupted and oil prices soared high.

Qantas Airways stock price fell as much as 10.4% to A$8.92 per share at the open of the Australian market on Monday — its lowest level since 2 May, 2025. It pared some losses during the day, down by 5.8% by 2345 GMT.

Global air travel remained in a turmoil over the weekend and the effects of the conflict in the Middle East continued to be felt on Monday. Key airports in Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha continued to be closed for a second day on Sunday due to the war in Iran, with tens of thousands of passengers remaining stranded as thousands of flights got cancelled.

Shares of Virgin Australia, Australia's No. 2 airline, slipped as much as 3.5% on Monday to A$3.03 per share to hit their lowest in nearly a month, before recouping losses to gain around 1.9%.

Shares of Air New Zealand fell as much as 0.5% to NZ$0.553 each, slipping to their lowest level since April 7, 2025, before paring losses to trade flat.

The S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.5% to 9,156.20 by 2332 GMT as risk-off sentiment prevailed after Israel and US launched large-scale strikes on Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other key members of the regime.

The conflict sent banking, airline, and technology stocks nosediving. Gold, energy and defence stocks saw a gain on the back of the war in Iran.

The benchmark rose 0.3% on Friday.

Flights cancelled amid war in Iran

The biggest disruption to global air transport since the Covid-19 pandemic continued for the second day on Sunday, with thousands of flights affected and busy Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha shuttered as Iran lashed out after US-Israeli strikes.

On Saturday, Iran hit the Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international air traffic, as a retaliation to the US' attacks on Tehran. It also launched strikes on Kuwait's main airport before Israel and Iran traded new attacks on Sunday.

Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates all announced that at least parts of their key airports were closed due to the conflict, sending global travel in jeopardy since Saturday after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Notable airlines that cancelled services included Emirates, Etihad, Air France, British Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa.

Flight tracking site FlightAware said that more than 6,700 flights had been delayed and 1900 cancelled globally as of 1000 GMT Sunday, on top of thousands the day before.

Following Saturday's attack, Iran swiftly moved to close its airspace “until further notice”.

Israel also closed its airspace to civilian flights, Transport Minister Miri Regev announced.

Qatar's civil aviation authority said it had temporarily closed the Gulf state's airspace. Iraq shut down airspace, state media said. The United Arab Emirates said it was closing its skies “partially and temporarily”.