21,300 flights cancelled since February 28. Over a million passengers affected. And today (March 16) brings the biggest single escalation yet: Lufthansa Group, KLM, Cathay Pacific, and British Airways all extending suspensions through the end of March.

If you’ve been tracking the crisis since our March 13 rebooking toolkit or the March 14 action plan, here’s what’s changed as of today and what it means for your next move.

Situation as of March 16, 2026

Carrier	Status	Waiver Deadline
Lufthansa Group (LH, LX, OS, SN)	Suspended through March 28	Rebook fee-free; full refund available
KLM	Suspended through March 28	Fee-free rebook or refund
Cathay Pacific	Suspended through March 31	Full refund or rebook within 90 days
British Airways	Suspended through end of March	Full refund; rebooking to alternate date
Emirates	Reduced schedule, 110+ destinations	Fee-free rebook; waiver through March 31
Etihad	Reduced operations	Fee-free rebook; waiver through April 30
Qatar Airways	Limited, with relief via Muscat	Check portal. Deadlines have shifted.

Total cancelled since Feb 28: 21,300+ flights Most reliable regional hub: Muscat (MCT), Oman Tickets issued before Feb 28: Fee-free rebooking or full refund across all listed carriers

What’s Different About Today’s Update

The March 13 toolkit focused on Gulf carriers: Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Gulf Air. Today the story shifted to European and Asian carriers.

Lufthansa’s group-wide suspension is significant because it covers four airlines at once: Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines. Anyone booked on any of those carriers through a Middle East routing is affected. KLM’s suspension brings Air France-KLM into the same position. And British Airways suspending “through end of March” without a specific date is the airline hedging on when it expects a return window.

Cathay Pacific’s March 31 cutoff is the longest in this group. If you were routing Hong Kong-Dubai-London or any variant of that Europe-Asia corridor, Cathay is fully off that routing until April at the earliest.

Emirates’ situation is different from the others. Emirates hasn’t fully suspended. It’s running a reduced schedule to around 110 destinations. That sounds like a lot until you remember Emirates normally serves 150+. The flights that are running are on longer routings, which means more time in the air and tighter connections at DXB.

Lufthansa Group: What to Do Right Now

Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines are all under the same waiver. If you have a ticket on any of them with Middle East routing:

1. Go to the airline’s manage booking portal (Lufthansa: lufthansa.com/us/en/manage-booking, Swiss: swiss.com, Austrian: austrian.com)
2. Log in with booking reference and last name
3. Select rebook or refund. Both options are fee-free for tickets issued before February 28.
4. For rebooking: select a new date after March 28 with enough buffer. Don’t book back-to-back; add at least a few days cushion past the suspension date in case it extends again

Miles & More frequent flyers: Your status line at Lufthansa has a separate callback queue. It’s faster. Use it if phone contact is necessary.

Important for Lufthansa booking through OTAs: The waiver applies to your ticket regardless of where you bought it, but the OTA (Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com, etc.) has to process the change. Contact the OTA, reference “Lufthansa force majeure waiver March 2026,” and request the rebook or refund in writing. Get the confirmation number before hanging up or closing the chat window.

KLM: Similar Process, One Nuance

KLM’s waiver structure mirrors Lufthansa’s. Suspended through March 28, fee-free rebook or full refund for affected tickets.

The nuance: KLM’s self-service portal at klm.com has been slower than usual this week due to volume. If the portal times out or can’t find your booking, try the KLM app instead of the browser. The app tends to handle high-traffic periods better than the web version.

Flying Blue members (Air France-KLM’s loyalty program): use the Flying Blue support line rather than the general KLM number. Even mid-tier status gets routed past the main queue.

British Airways: “End of March” Is Intentionally Vague

BA’s “through end of March” language is the airline not committing to a specific date. They’ve done this before during disruption events to avoid announcing a firm resume date and then having to pull it back.

For passengers: this means March 31 is the working assumption, but it could extend into April. If you’re rebooking onto a late-March BA flight through the region, you’re taking risk. Book April 5 or later if you want buffer.

Rebook or refund at britishairways.com/travel/managebooking. BA’s Executive Club line is significantly faster than general customer service right now.

Cathay Pacific: Best Option for Europe-Asia Corridors

Cathay’s suspension through March 31 is fully in line with the others, but Cathay’s 90-day rebook window gives you more flexibility than most. You don’t have to pick a new date today. You have 90 days from the cancellation notification to rebook at no charge.

If you were routing through Hong Kong on a Cathay itinerary:

• Alternative for Europe-Asia: Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways have been absorbing a lot of the displaced Hong Kong traffic. Both are running on full schedules on Europe-Asia routes right now. Prices are higher than normal by 15–25%, but availability exists.
• If you’d prefer to wait for Cathay: Use the 90-day window. Cathay is likely to resume full operations in April, at which point prices normalize.

Manage your booking at cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/manage-booking. Marco Polo Club members have priority contact at +1-800-233-2742.

Emirates: Reduced Schedule Means Different Risks

Emirates is the outlier in this update. They’re flying (reduced schedule, 110+ destinations), but that creates its own problems.

On flights that are operating: routings are longer because they’re using southern corridors (through Egypt and Oman). A Dubai-London route that normally runs around 7 hours is currently running 8.5–9.5 hours depending on corridor congestion. Connections through DXB are tight because arrival slots are compressed.

If you have an Emirates connection through DXB: Build in at least 3 hours if you’re connecting to another Emirates flight. The 90-minute minimum connection that normally works at Dubai International is not working reliably right now. Emirates’ own advisories are recommending extended connection buffers.

Emirates’ waiver runs through March 31. Manage at emirates.com/english/manage-booking.

Muscat: Why It’s the Most Reliable Hub Right Now

Every post we’ve written on this crisis since March 7 has mentioned Muscat as a reliable alternative. Three weeks in, that’s still true. Here’s the reason.

Oman airspace has remained open throughout the crisis. Muscat International (MCT) has benefited from that because relief flights and rerouted traffic from Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi have been staging through it. Qatar Airways specifically has been running relief flights out of MCT.

Practically, what this means:

• If your carrier offers a routing through Muscat as an alternative, it’s legitimate and generally reliable
• MCT is smaller than DXB. Seat inventory on long-haul connections books out faster than Dubai.
• Ground connection from Dubai to Muscat is roughly 4.5 hours by road if you’re in the UAE and need to get to a reliable hub. Not fast, but it’s an option if you’re stuck.
• Muscat has direct connections to major European, South Asian, and East African destinations via Oman Air, Qatar, and Turkish reroutes

Check Muscat availability using Google Flights with MCT as your new origin or hub. Our Google Flights vs. Skyscanner comparison covers which tool finds better deals on alternative hub searches.

Refund vs. Rebook: Which Makes Sense Right Now

The question everyone’s asking. Short answer: it depends on whether you have time-sensitive travel.

Take the refund if:

• Your travel isn’t time-sensitive and you’re not sure when you’ll rebook
• The destination has ongoing safety concerns beyond just the airspace issue
• You paid a good fare and want the cash back to book fresh when the situation stabilizes
• You booked through an OTA and don’t want to deal with a multi-party rebooking process

Rebook if:

• You need to reach your destination by a specific date and alternatives exist
• You’re indifferent between carriers and can reroute via a working hub
• You’ve verified the airspace your new routing uses is consistently open (check Flightradar24 before committing)

The timing trap: Some travelers are waiting for the situation to fully normalize before rebooking. The risk is that waiver windows close before they decide. Most carriers’ waivers require you to rebook by a specific date even if your new travel date is in April or May. Don’t confuse “I have time to travel later” with “I have time to process the rebook.”

What Travel Insurance Actually Covers (Updated March 16)

This hasn’t changed since the travel insurance war exclusion guide, but we’re getting asked again so here’s the quick version:

Standard trip cancellation: No. War exclusion applies to the US-Israel Iran strikes that triggered the closures.

Trip delay benefits: Possibly. Many policies cover airline-caused delays separately from war exclusions. If your flight was delayed 6+ hours (the typical threshold), file this as an airline operations delay, not a war event. Documentation matters: keep the airline’s delay notification and all receipts.

CFAR (Cancel for Any Reason): Yes, if you bought it before the crisis. You recover 50–75% of prepaid costs. You must cancel before departure and within your policy’s CFAR deadline.

Credit card trip protection: Variable. Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve have handled some of these claims, but exclusion language varies by card issue date and the specific policy version. Pull your benefit guide from the card’s website and call the benefit administrator directly.

For passengers whose flights have been cancelled but who haven’t filed anything yet: the airlines delay compensation guide covers what you’re entitled to under current US DOT rules. The short version is that compensation rights are narrower than most travelers expect after the 2025 DOT rule rollback.

The Documentation Habit You Need Before Doing Anything

If you’re in the middle of this (cancelled flight, pending rebook, insurance claim), documentation is the thing that separates fast resolution from a months-long dispute.

Save these now, before doing anything else:

• Airline cancellation or delay notification (email or app screenshot with timestamp)
• Original booking confirmation with ticket number, passenger name, itinerary
• Written confirmation of any rebook, waiver acceptance, or refund request
• All receipts for out-of-pocket costs: hotel, meals, ground transport, phone calls
• Notes from every agent interaction: date, time, agent name or ID, what was agreed

This isn’t overcautious. Airlines are processing hundreds of thousands of claims. Your file needs to be complete to get processed without a follow-up.

What to Book Instead If You’re Routing Completely Around the Region

If you’ve decided not to wait and want to avoid the Middle East entirely, the non-Gulf corridors that are working:

Europe to South Asia: Turkish Airlines via Istanbul (IST) is the cleanest option right now. Extensive South Asia coverage, full schedule, no airspace exposure. Connection times at IST should be 2 hours minimum.

Europe to East Africa: Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines both have direct routes from European cities that don’t touch Gulf airspace. Less frequency than Emirates-connected options, but operating normally.

Europe to Southeast Asia: Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, and Cathay (when it resumes) via their respective hubs. The routing goes east over Central Asia rather than through the Gulf. Longer but currently reliable.

Use the best AI travel planners to compare routing options quickly. For raw fare data, Google Flights’ “Explore” mode is still the fastest way to see what’s available on alternative hub combinations with date flexibility.

The Bottom Line for March 16

Two things are happening simultaneously: Gulf carriers are slowly rebuilding capacity while European and Asian carriers are just now announcing full month-end suspensions. The crisis isn’t over. For travelers with March bookings, the waiver windows are real but expiring on specific dates.

Priority order for today:

1. Lufthansa Group travelers: Log into manage booking now. March 28 suspension date confirmed.
2. KLM travelers: Same. Try the app if the website is slow.
3. British Airways travelers: Rebook to April 5 or later to get real buffer past “end of March.”
4. Cathay Pacific travelers: You have 90 days to rebook. Use that window, but don’t let it slip.
5. Emirates travelers: Assess whether your specific routing is operating. Check with Flightradar24 before trusting the booking portal’s availability.
6. Anyone undecided: If you haven’t acted on a March booking, act today. Waiver windows don’t pause.

For the full spring travel picture, the spring break 2026 last-minute booking guide covers fare market context and the best tool setups for finding alternatives fast.

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Information current as of March 16, 2026. Airline suspension dates and waiver terms are changing rapidly. Verify all deadlines directly with your carrier’s manage booking portal before acting. Lufthansa Group and KLM March 28 deadlines and British Airways’ end-of-March suspension are current as of this writing.