Charter flights put on as F1 bosses try to keep Australian Grand Prix on track

Formula One has kept Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix alive by using charter planes to fly hundreds of affected members of the sport’s travelling circus to Melbourne.

Following the travel chaos caused by airspace closure in the Middle East, the Press Association has been told that two chartered aircraft departed London on Monday night.

A British Airways plane, which stopped at Singapore, and a business-class only Air X flight via Tanzania, carried staff from 10 of the grid’s 11 teams as well as F1 officials to Australia. The eleventh-hour flights were coordinated by sports travel agency, Travel Places.

Update: Qatar Airways flight operations remain temporarily suspended due to the closure of Qatari airspace. Qatar Airways will resume operations once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the safe reopening of Qatari airspace. A further update will be provided on 04 March…

— Qatar Airways (@qatarairways) March 3, 2026

The affected personnel are due to land in Melbourne on Wednesday morning, 48 hours out from the opening practice session of the season at Albert Park.

Roughly 2,000 people work at every F1 race, and it is thought at least a quarter had been due to travel to Australia via travel hubs such as Doha and Dubai.

However, the conflict in the Middle East caused hundreds of staff to re-route or take chartered flights. One leading UK-based team told PA that more than 50 per cent of its travelling staff had been affected.

China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, America, Singapore and Hong Kong have all been used as stopovers by those scrambling to make it to Australia.

However, despite the disruption, F1 bosses are understood to be confident the race in Melbourne will go ahead as planned.

A paddock insider