Middle East Airspace Closure: Duty of Care for 2,550+ Travelers

When conflict in the Middle East triggered the Middle East airspace closure, causing widespread flight disruptions, organizations faced immediate risk to employee safety, business continuity and financial exposure.

Within hours, CTM activated a global crisis response protecting over 2,550 travelers, maintaining business continuity and delivering zero safety incidents.

Read on to find out how.

Emergency Response: Middle East Airspace Closure

Objective

With the news breaking over the weekend, and during the middle of the night for some regions, organizations needed immediate support to:

• Locate and account for traveling employees
• Keep people safe in volatile conditions
• Avoid unnecessary cancelations and cost exposure
• Maintain continuity of critical operations.

CTM’s crisis protocols supported fast activation of our Major Incident Response Teams (MIRT) globally.

This involved a response team for each region, including members of the executive team (C-Suite) and senior operations and client management leaders.

For CTM, this meant providing immediate guidance for the more than 2,550 travelers directly impacted, proactive booking support for travelers with upcoming travel plans to the impacted areas and a business continuity plan to ensure all other business as usual booking support could continue during the crisis.

Solutions

The First 24 Hours – Global Crisis Activation

As with all travel disruptions, the first 24-hours requires clear prioritization to triage booking support while the emergency response team scales. This is where CTM’s local after-hours support model becomes a critical factor for successful crisis management. When the news broke, CTM’s local after-hours teams reported:

• Almost 40% spike in call volumes in some regions
• Call wait times averaged less than 10 minutes globally (9:53).

In the background, CTM’s crisis management reporting was circulated to all relevant stakeholders, with impacted travelers immediately identified. This enabled CTM to confirm the safety status of individuals and notify client management teams for escalation with customers.

Introducing Team B: CTM’s Crisis-Ready Workforce

The MIRT was formed and plans to scale operational staff were activated as per each region’s emergency protocol. Managing this outside of business hours relied on the preparation of our teams, with personal contact numbers required for each member of CTM’s second line of support staff. “Team B”, as they are known are daytime operational staff who complete a monthly after-hours shift for training purposes should the inevitable occur, meaning instantly scaled support for customers.

24-48 Hours In – Complex Rebooking & Route Optimization

With teams scaled effectively around the world, calls response times dropped to normal levels, despite between 110% – 135% increases in call volumes.

Due to CTM’s strong supplier partnerships and board status for industry bodies (such as ATIA), access to information was available in real-time during official updates from Governments and industry officials.

Customer communications were issued with clear advice to ensure duty of care for travelers and practical guidance for travel bookers to ensure no loss of money due to cancelations.

Booking support was triaged for travelers with upcoming trips within the next 48 hours. CTM’s travel experts combined their geographical and airline knowledge with creative problem solving to identify alternative routes for travelers to continue their journeys around the closed airspace, avoiding cancelations or delayed travel plans.

Regular travel booking support continued for non-impacted travelers, with CTM’s partner offices and support teams taking on BAU requests for uncomplex travel.

Outcome

• 2,550+ travelers located and supported within days
• Zero reported safety incidents across impacted travelers
• Call volumes increased up to 135% in some regions, with wait times maintained under 10 minutes globally
• Business continuity maintained, with BAU travel operations unaffected
• CTM’s local after-hours teams scaled by almost double (90%) in most regions and up to 185% in the first 48 hours
• Critical government and corporate travel supported, including repatriation and deployment of 30 DFAT personnel to provide Consular support.

Why a Managed Travel Program Matters in a Crisis

When disruption hits, unmanaged travel programs face:

• No real-time traveler visibility
• Delayed or fragmented response
• Increased financial loss
• Higher risk exposure.

 With CTM:

• 24/7 global support already in place
• Traveler data and itineraries centralized
• Immediate escalation and rebooking capability
• Expert routing knowledge across regions.