How War-Risk Coverage Gives Emirates the Ultimate Gulf Edge

War-risk insurance is now a competitive advantage in the Gulf. Emirates reportedly pays about $100,000 a week to cover its whole fleet. Foreign rivals were quoted $70,000 to $150,000 per flight.

Both figures date from March, per the Financial Times. We have seen no updates.

The Financial Times reported Emirates’ cover on March 30 through Insurance Business. One insurance executive called it “outrageously low.” At least one insurer declined to take part. Figures below are as reported, not verified by us.

	Reported
Emirates, whole fleet	about $100K a week, about $2bn limit, placed by WTW (Insurance Business)
Foreign carriers into the Gulf	$70K to $150K per flight (Insurance Business)
Narrowbody round trip, Gulf	about $5K before, about $36K after (illustrative, March, Safefly)
Widebody round trip, Gulf	about $18K before, about $120K after (illustrative, March, Safefly)
Charter war cover	up to $50K per flight, from $5K to $10K (FT, March, via Seoul Economic Daily)
Political violence capacity, Middle East	over $1bn to about $200m by 1Q (Marsh, via Beinsure)
Political violence rates	up at least 20-fold in some markets (Marsh, via Beinsure)
Class losses	over $2bn (Marsh Re), over $3bn estimated (Howden Re), per Insurance Business

Airports are now targets. A drone and missile strike hit Kuwait’s Terminal 1 on June 3. On October 10, a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid airport killed 12 and wounded 309, per the Saudi aviation authority. Dammam was hit on October 22, with two dead.

Behind the break: what one daily Gulf rotation costs against Emirates’ whole fleet. Why airports are the exposure. What the insurance market is doing. Who is absorbing it. Sources are named inline. Numbers we derived are marked “per our math.”

Everything above is public. The analysis below is what AirInsight subscribers pay for.