One in three New Zealanders fly to Europe via the Middle East — so what now?
Friday, 6 March 2026
Long-haul travel has been thrown into chaos after missile strikes forced the closure of parts of Middle East airspace — one of the key corridors linking New Zealand to Europe.
Emirates and Qatar Airways, the two Gulf-based carriers that fly to New Zealand, have suspended their flights this week and some countries are organising repatriation flights to get its citizens out of affected areas.
Many Stuff readers asked us what to do about their upcoming travel plans, whether this month or months away. We answered a lot of those questions in our live blog this week.
The Middle East is one of New Zealand’s key connection hubs to Europe. Auckland Airport has seven flights a week to Dubai and seven to Doha. Christchurch has seven Emirates flights a week to Sydney where passengers can fly onwards to Dubai.
Analytics from Cirium show that in February 2026, there were 56 scheduled flights to the two Middle East hubs, compared to 305 to North America, 562 to Asia and 15,788 to Australasia.
Despite the relatively small number of direct flights, the Middle East plays a major role as a transit point for long-haul travel, particularly to Europe.
In 2025, 474,227 people flew from New Zealand to either Dubai or Doha as a stopover. Of those travellers, more than 306,000, about 65%, were continuing to Europe.
Europe was the final destination for 857,096 travellers departing New Zealand that year, meaning more than one in three New Zealanders travelling to Europe passed through the Middle East.
By comparison, the Middle East itself was the final destination for 171,653 passengers leaving New Zealand in 2025.
Now, that key hub is out of action but there are many other ways to get to Europe that avoid the Middle East.
New Zealand–Europe travel essentially funnels through three geographic corridors, Asia, North America and Australia.
Via the Americas
Air Canada and Air New Zealand fly to Vancouver. This is a good option if you want to avoid the US border and the need to collect your bag and check it in again.
Otherwise from Auckland, you can fly direct to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Houston, all connecting with Europe.
Via South America, the Shanghai–Auckland–Buenos Aires service allows travellers to continue from Auckland to Argentina, where flights across the Atlantic Ocean connect to several European cities — avoiding the Middle East altogether.
Via Asia
Singapore is the obvious main hub, connecting to 102 European destinations. There are 21 flights a week from Auckland and seven from Christchurch.
Other major Asian gateways include Hong Kong and Tokyo, with 18 flights a week to Hong Kong and 10 to Tokyo (Narita) from Auckland.
Seoul is another strong connector, with Korean Air flying daily and linking to about 20 European cities.
There are also 10 weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia Airlines, though the hub offers fewer European connections.
Taipei is another option, with four flights a week from Auckland and connections to around nine European destinations.
Travellers can also route through China, where hubs such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen offer onward flights to Europe, often with lower fares. Shanghai in particular is well connected and is served from Auckland by China Eastern and Air New Zealand.
Smaller Chinese gateways such as Hangzhou and Haikou offer more limited connections.
Bangkok will open as an option in the second half of 2026 when Thai Airways returns to New Zealand for the first time since the pandemic.
Via Australia
This might have passed you by, but Perth is now a major gateway to Europe from New Zealand and, at about seven hours away, it’s the closest.
From New Zealand, fly to Perth with Air New Zealand or Qantas. From there you can get a direct flight to London, Rome or Paris.
The Rome service is seasonal, from May 3 to October 23, 2026.