Airline shares have plunged, with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific and Australia’s Qantas Airways down more than 5pc, and European airline stocks indicated lower, after the US-Israel-Iran war disrupted travel and sent oil prices surging, Reuters reports.

Shares in Lufthansa and TUI were each indicated to open down nearly 12pc.

Cathay Pacific, whose shares fell as much as 7pc before paring losses to 2.9pc, said it had cancelled all of its flights to the Middle East until further notice.

Shares in Qantas fell 10.4pc to the lowest level in 10 months when the market opened in Australia, before paring some losses to trade down about 6pc, even though it does not fly to the Middle East and instead relies on a codeshare partnership with Dubai’s Emirates.

Shares in other Asian carriers, including Japan’s ANA Holdings, Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Malaysia’s AirAsia X and Taiwan’s China Airlines and EVA Airways, all fell at least 4pc.

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