To Leave Dubai, Tourists Rush to Hire Private Jets Priced at Rp1.6 Billion

Several airports in the Middle East were not operating at full capacity on Tuesday (3 March 2026) amid the conflict between the United States and Israel with Iran. As a result, all international flights were briefly affected, with more than 9,500 flights cancelled from 28 February to 1 March 2026, according to flight-tracking platform Flightradar24. This situation left businesspeople and tourists in the Middle East stranded and unable to return to their home countries for a period. Recently, the elite have chosen to use private jets to depart Dubai to avoid the conflict area. The surge in private-jet pricing was driven by the spike in demand from travellers in Dubai who decided to use private jets instead of waiting for commercial services to resume. A passenger on a private jet now faces a tariff of 85,000 euros or around Rp1.67 billion for the smallest jet named Nextant on a route to Istanbul. Although demand is high and prices have surged, some private-jet operators say they cannot deploy aircraft due to the difficulty of stationing fleets in the Middle East. A representative from Austrian-based charter airline AlbaJet said seat availability was very limited. They offered flights to Europe at around 90,000 euros or around Rp1.7 billion. ‘Many aircraft operators will not operate those flights because of insurance requirements and owner decisions. So demand is high, but supply is very limited,’ Albajet said, citing The Guardian. He noted that flights from Riyadh to Europe were priced up to 350,000 US dollars or nearly Rp6 billion. The demand to leave Dubai started last week. Naran said there was a significant uptick in private-jet demand from Friday (27 February 2026) onward, as reported by Business Insider.