'Aviation quagmire': Trump threatens $11.7 trillion travel industry

President Donald Trump has caused an "aviation quagmire," one former airline executive and founder said about the war in Iran.

While oil executives are freaking out and gas prices are jumping, Trump has another problem with the global travel industry, CNBC reported on Thursday.

Trump's war against Iran hasn't merely stayed within the borders of Iran. In retaliation, Iran has been using drones to launch attacks all over the region, with one drone hitting Azerbaijan's airport. Another drone hit a British air base in Cyprus.

It means that the stability of any planes flying through the region must take one of two routes: south over Saudi Arabia or north over Georgia, FlightRadar shows. But after a drone hit in Azerbaijan, the southern route might be the only option for a while.

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that Asian airlines had a 900 percent fare hike as people from all over the world are desperately trying to get out of the area.

PlaneFinder allows observers to search for aircraft by type, including drones. Users can click on the drones to see who owns them. A report on Wednesday from CNN's Natasha Bertrand revealed that Trump administration officials acknowledged during a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill that they have major concerns about Iran's drone program because they haven't been able to intercept all of them, as evidenced by the six dead American soldiers in Kuwait.

A number of corporate drones have been spotted circling Kuwait, Qatar and the U.A.E. for the past several days. It's unclear if they're being used as private security for the countries, however. One Royal Air Force military transport aircraft was spotted over Qatar on Thursday morning.

CNBC spoke to a Zoey Gong, a Chinese medicine food therapist, who was stuck in Paris, trying to get to Shanghai via Dubai via an Emirates flight. She ended up having to pay more than double the price of her original ticket for another flight home.

"She’s one of millions of travelers swept up in war and other conflicts from Iran to Mexico this year, problems that are threatening the global tourism industry that’s worth an estimated $11.7 trillion to the world’s economy," CNBC reported, citing the industry group World Travel & Tourism Council. "It’s showing that people who are far from falling missiles, drone attacks and other geopolitical flashpoints aren’t immune to ripple effects."

More than a million people have been stranded, the report said, with 20,000 flights being grounded after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran.

“This has spiraled into an aviation quagmire,” complained Henry Harteveldt when speaking to CNBC. He is a former airline executive who founded the travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group.

He went on to say that the strikes have caused “the most chaotic event we’ve seen frankly since 9/11 when the U.S. chose to close its airspace. We haven’t seen anything that has had such a long and geographically widespread impact on travel.”

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