A map of the Middle East, showing the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, with Iran highlighted and markers on Dubai and Tehran.

Tons of goods are stuck around the Middle East amid shipping and air chaos

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Global supply chains are on edge after the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran on Saturday, triggering widespread disruption across one of the world’s most critical trade corridors.

The fallout is hitting more than oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Container ships loaded with consumer goods, auto parts, electronics, and food are being rerouted or delayed, while air cargo networks are fracturing under sudden airspace closures.

“Ocean container services in the Persian Gulf have continued unaffected by the recent build-up of military forces in the region, but the escalation in conflict through military strikes means ships will now avoid the area, but for as short a time as possible,” said Peter Sand, the chief analyst at freight-rate analytics platform Xeneta.

On Sunday, MSC — the world’s largest container shipping line by capacity — said it had suspended all bookings for cargo to the Middle East until further notice.

Danish shipping giant Maersk paused Red Sea and Suez Canal sailings amid fears the Iran escalation could spill over into key shipping lanes. The company is rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

French shipping giant CMA CGM announced Monday it will impose an “Emergency Conflict Surcharge” effective Monday, citing rising security risks. The surcharge will add between $2,000 and $4,000 per container on shipments to and from Gulf and Red Sea countries.

On Saturday, CMA CGM ordered vessels inside or bound for the Gulf to “proceed to shelter.” It also suspended sailings through the Suez Canal and rerouted ships to the Cape of Good Hope.

German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd introduced a $1,500 per standard container war risk surcharge and suspended vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz.

Sailing around Africa, rather than through the Suez Canal, absorbs roughly 2.5 million 20-foot container units’ worth of global container capacity, according to Xeneta’s Sand.

Read more about the US-Iran conflict

Air cargo rates may rise

Air freight is also under strain.

Several Middle Eastern airspaces have been closed or restricted, disrupting passenger and cargo flights.

Parcel delivery giant FedEx suspended flights to and from markets including Bahrain, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE, and halted pickup and delivery services in several Gulf countries.

Qatar Airways Cargo temporarily suspended operations due to the closure of Qatari airspace.

DSV, a Danish logistics company, said in an advisory that airspace restrictions are forcing carriers to suspend services or divert flights and lengthen routings.

With less cargo space available on key Asia-Europe and Middle East routes, air freight rates are likely to rise, space will tighten, and airlines may make short-notice schedule and pricing changes, according to DSV.

Ryan Petersen, the CEO of Flexport, wrote on X that conflict in the Middle East has removed 18% of global air freight capacity from the market.

If carriers begin omitting Gulf port calls, containers may be discharged at alternative hubs and trucked onward, wrote Xeneta’s Sand.

The broader concern, however, is what the escalation means for global trade flows through the Red Sea this year. The conflict comes after more than two years of disruption caused by Iran-backed Houthi attacks on commercial shipping.

“The repercussions of the joint military operation by the US and Israel against Iran and subsequent retaliatory action will see the further weaponization of trade and shatter hopes of a large-scale return of container shipping to the Red Sea in 2026,” wrote Sand.




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I’m stuck in Dubai after our flight was canceled. I’m paying more than $650 a night for a hotel.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kunal Trehan, a luxury interior designer. It has been edited for length and clarity.

We arrived in Dubai on February 20th to expand our business into the UAE, fully expecting to fly home to the UK on February 28th at 10:20 p.m. local time.

On Saturday, the day we intended to leave, we decided to chill by the beach connected to our hotel. Around midday, we heard what sounded like an explosion — a very faint but deep sound. My partner and I assumed it was demolition until an hour later, when people started messaging me on WhatsApp asking if I was OK. I couldn’t understand what they were worried about.


Two men posing for photo inside a car

Kunal Trehan and his partner are stuck in Dubai after the airport closed.

Courtesy of Kunal Trehan



I quickly opened the Qatar Airways app and saw that our flight had been canceled. I started to freak out a bit, wondering if something was going on and how we would escape.

We heard more explosions

As we sat on the beach, still trying to figure out what was happening and what to do next, we could hear more explosions and see accompanying clouds of smoke in the distance. We rushed inside, with me telling my pragmatic self to stay calm and not to panic.

In the evening, more explosions could be heard. We could see the orange light of missiles racing across the sky. We didn’t know where they were being launched from or who was launching them.

I was getting increasingly nervous after looking at the news and social media online. Hotel staff told guests to come inside from their balconies and close their room curtains. Everyone obeyed.

By this point, the sky had become a large plume of smoke over the Fairmont hotel. In the lobby, people were notably panicked. It felt quite claustrophobic, unsettling.

We got emergency alerts on our phones

At midnight, my partner and I got ready to head to sleep when we heard yet another explosion. We opened our curtains, and it looked as if a missile was headed right towards us. Our phones started alarming with the emergency government message to take shelter. “What the hell do we do?” I asked my partner.


Emergency alert

Kunal Trehan received emergency alerts on his phone.

Courtesy of Kunal Trehan



Hotel staff knocked, told us to gather our passports and valuables, and to make our way to the basement. The basement was a concrete-floored area. People were perched on the ground, the elderly in chairs. The staff was doing what they could to calm people and make them as comfortable as possible, providing pillows and blankets.

Even the staff, many of whom are locals, were alarmed. They’ve told us that they haven’t experienced this before. We’ve tried to calm others, to make sure they’re OK.

For three hours, we stayed in the basement, but eventually made our way back to the room as my sciatica was flaring up. We had two hours of sleep in our room before we were woken by another explosion around 9 a.m. on Sunday.

We are advised to stay inside the hotel

The hotel has continued to advise people to stay inside — although we know we aren’t directly being attacked, we are caught in the crossfire of a war, and who knows what could fall from the sky. We’ve followed the advice given to us and done what we can to stay safe.


People sheltering in hotel

Kunal Trehan had to take shelter in the hotel’s basement.

Courtesy of Kunal Trehan



We’ve asked to move hotel rooms to a first-floor room. If our hotel gets hit, we’d rather be able to get outside quickly. My partner and I keep reminding each other that, for right now, we are relatively safe.

But whereas yesterday, I felt a sense of purpose in helping others, today, I’m feeling very flat. We are incredibly fortunate, yet completely out of control, and have no idea when we will be able to get home.

We are paying $670 a night at the hotel

Fortunately, we have the funds to continue paying for our hotel room, which is about $670 a night, and to eat and buy necessities. Our meal tonight — just mains and water — came to about $120. We haven’t been told that any of this will be reimbursed by our travel insurance company.


Man taking selfie at Dubai hotel

Kunal Trehan and his partner moved to a first-floor room in case they need to evacuate.

Courtesy of Kunal Trehan



Over and over, my partner and I speak of how lucky we are. Lucky that we are safe. Lucky that we have money to stay here. Lucky that we didn’t attempt to go to the airport. And yet, we are still so worried. So many emotions — from fear to gratitude.

Our friends and family are so worried for us — we have had hundreds of messages asking how we are. No matter how much we tell them we are safe, their worry continues, and we can hear it in their message and voice notes.

We are hoping to fly out on Thursday, but nothing is set in stone. Just another thing out of our control for now.




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A headshot of Insider's Pete Syme

600 airline passengers faced the weirdest sleepover ever, when snow left them stuck on planes overnight

by with No Comment Xpandfy

Hundreds of people spent a snowy and freezing night trapped on board parked airplanes last Thursday.

Six flights, with around 600 passengers total, were unable to take off before Munich Airport’s 1 a.m. curfew due to the bad weather, the airport said in a Monday statement.

The airport police department has prepared a report on the incident, which is set to be submitted to the public prosecutor on Tuesday, Sven Otto, chief inspector for the Upper Bavaria North Police, told Business Insider.

He added that no complaints have yet been filed with the police by affected passengers.

Around 100 flights were canceled in Munich on Thursday, and temperatures dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. There were long lines to de-ice planes, while runways were periodically closed at short notice to clear the heavy snowfall, the airport said.

Munich, Europe’s 10th-busiest airport, typically shuts at midnight, but it received a permit that day to operate an hour later.

When the six flights couldn’t depart on time, there was no space left to park at the terminal due to all the cancellations, the airport said.

However, the passengers couldn’t be transported to the terminal because “bus service was severely restricted” due to “the late hour and communication problems,” it added.

Five of the flights were operated by Germany’s Lufthansa Group, and another by Air Arabia, a budget airline based in the UAE, according to the airport.

It said that airlines “provided the passengers with the best possible care on the aircraft.” Although those on board spoke of their distress.

“There was no food or drink for us. There were no blankets for us either,” Søren Thieme, who was on one of the Lufthansa planes, told Ekstra Bladet, a Danish newspaper that first reported the incident.

He said passengers on the canceled flight to Copenhagen asked if they could enter the airport, but they were told it was forbidden, and that all the bus drivers had gone home.

“We’re simply trapped here, along with the staff, too,” he told the newspaper.

Lufthansa and Air Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.

Munich Airport said it “apologized expressly” to the affected passengers.

“Our top priority is always the safety and satisfaction of our passengers, and these incidents do not meet our standards.”




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Kelsey Baker, Military and Defense Reporting Fellow

Thousands of military families are stuck on childcare waitlists. More spots may not be enough to fix the deeper problems.

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There are an estimated 7,800 children on US military childcare waitlists. Military families and advocates say the number masks deeper shortfalls that continue to sideline working spouses and strain service members.

Lawmakers raised the issue during a recent congressional hearing, calling the persistent backlog a quality-of-life problem, even as the waitlist has notably dropped from 12,000 children in 2024.

Advocates told Business Insider that the number isn’t the whole picture and excludes families who’ve given up out of frustration or can’t use base centers that lack evening, weekend, or specialized care.

“We can’t say that we are a military that cares about our families if we pretend to provide childcare and then we’ve got a waitlist that’s got 7,800 babies waiting on it,” Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said to service senior enlisted leaders during last week’s hearing.

None of the service leaders present disputed that figure.

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman acknowledged that the Navy still has roughly 1,400 children in unmet need status, while Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe said his service’s waitlist stands at around 2,700, though there are efforts underway to open new spots.

It is not clear how the remaining waitlisted children are divided between other services.

In 2022, the Air Force had 95,000 children under 5 but space for only about 23,000 in its child development centers, a 2023 service report on childcare found.

An Air Force spokesperson attributed that disparity to the number of children entering and leaving care throughout the year. “The annual number served will not correlate with daily capacity and can be significantly higher,” they said.

Not all families require on-base care. But the report added that more facility construction alone would not be a “viable solution to meet all potential demand.”

Kayla Corbitt, a military spouse and the founder of a nonprofit dedicated to helping military families find reliable childcare, told Business Insider that many families lose hope amid long waits. Staying on the waitlist, she said, requires logging on every couple of months to reconfirm before families are automatically disenrolled.

And for some families, the barriers extend beyond backlogs.


A room at the CDC at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Jan. 14, 2026.

A room at the CDC at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.



Airman Paden Henry/US Air Force



“Anyone needing evening care, weekend care, shift work care, which is a lot of the military, they aren’t going to try to get on that waitlist,” Corbitt said, explaining that most child development centers, or CDCs, on bases don’t offer late evening or very early morning care needed for troops on 24-hour duty or for deployed service members with spouses who work unusual hours.

Additionally, children with special needs face significant obstacles in finding care, Corbitt said, as many CDCs are not equipped to provide care, and the policies sometimes vary from facility to facility, making it hard for families to know what to expect when they move.

Brigit Schneider, an Air Force spouse and mother of three children, wants to return to work as a financial planner to better support her family, but because her local childcare center won’t accept children with feeding tubes, one of her young children is shut out.

“From a special needs mom perspective, it’s an extra layer of challenge,” she told Business Insider.

Schneider pays nearly $1,000 a month for one child to receive on-base childcare, another child is receiving private care due to the severity of their disability, and a third is at home. Schneider says the third should be able to receive base care.

“A G-tube really is not a hard medical device to learn how to use,” she said.

Generally, though, military CDCs won’t accept children with gastrostomy tubes. Facilities are often unable, or unwilling, to provide higher levels of care, Corbitt said.

Air Force childcare programs are “supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts who provide consultation and support to ensure the highest quality of inclusive care,” an Air Force spokesperson told Business Insider following a query regarding the service’s childcare.

The service “offers a network of on- and off-installation care options and works closely with families to identify the appropriate setting for their child,” said the spokesperson, adding that waitlist data helps inform future allocation requirements.

Staffing shortages are another obstacle to reliable access for military personnel. Military childcare workers face unusually high attrition rates, around 50%, Warren said at last week’s congressional hearing, driven largely by meager pay.

Compounding the issue is the lack of a clear pathway that would allow qualified providers to move easily between states.

Nearly 40% of childcare workers are military spouses, said the Marine Corps’ top enlisted leader, Sergeant Major Carlos Ruiz, during the hearing. “If we can just be a little bit more smart about transferring folks and directly hiring from one CDC to another, we can reduce the attrition,” he said.

Government watchdogs have repeatedly flagged childcare accessibility as a point of concern for the US military. A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found that while the services focus heavily on recruiting new childcare workers, they do not consistently measure whether employee retention efforts are effective.

The military’s childcare shortages aren’t unique to the armed forces. Many Americans in the civilian world struggle to find reliable, reasonably priced childcare.

Often, a year of childcare amounts to an entire average salary, costing tens of thousands of dollars. The cost of childcare in the US has increased by over 150% over the last quarter-century and continues to climb, often outpacing inflation. In some areas, childcare costs can exceed rent or mortgage payments.




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