Cost of war: How the US-Iran conflict is impacting SA's rugby teams

Flying a squad of 40 athletes, coaches and medical staff from one of South Africa’s major centres to compete in a high-performance environment is never straightforward.

Visas, flights, hotels, transport and many other factors need to be taken into consideration. Sticking to a schedule and a budget are the two most vital aspects of travel.

The South African rugby landscape is currently facing a “perfect storm” of geopolitical instability and structural financial shifts that threaten the viability of its cross-continental model.

As the 2026 playoff season looms, the escalating conflict in the Middle East has moved from a distant concern to a central operational crisis for franchises such as the Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Sharks.

Since the start of the US/Israeli led war in Iran, the entire Middle East and most of the world has been thrown into all kinds of chaos.

Obviously lives of Iranians have been changed with the threat of daily missile strikes. In turn the lives of people across the Middle East are also under threat, with retaliatory Iranian strikes across the region.

As a consequence, financial markets, led by a surging oil price, are heading towards a possible collapse while travel routes globally have been affected.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are among the busiest hubs in global aviation. Traffic through these airports has been severely restricted due to the war, with frequency of flights down 80%, while fuel prices are surging under pressure from the cost of crude oil.

For South Africa’s leading rugby clubs competing in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) tournaments, the situation is becoming more problematic by the day.

Soaring costs

Although some flights for upcoming fixtures in Europe were booked in advance, the reality is that there might not even be a scheduled flight because of the culling of routes.

Estimates are that flight costs for a touring squad could rise about R800,000 from a price of R2.5-million in January.

Before the current 2026 season, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) paid the travel costs for the competing teams in both URC and EPCR.

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But since becoming a full shareholder in URC, meaning an income earner from the tournament, Saru changed its funding model, allocating each of the four clubs an annual travel budget of R36.5-million.

That allowed clubs to book their own travel and potentially forge relationships with travel companies or airlines and negotiate their own special deals.

The Stormers, who run under tight fiscal reins, budgeted R23.5-million of that for travel allowance this season, keeping back R13-million in reserve.

The reason they did that was because just before Saru changed the travel funding system, the Test match hosting model also changed.

Saru now owns the Tests and pays a fee to the clubs for hosting the Springboks.

Across the board, it is a more equitable system, with all rugby unions receiving similar amounts of Test match income based on their size.

But for the Stormers, for instance, who made north of R90-million in profit on the 2024 Boks vs All Black Test at Cape Town Stadium, they made about R50-million less for hosting the Wallabies in 2025 under the new model.

So, some of their travel budget was held back to offset the smaller Test match income.

But the war in Iran is going to affect travel in the short-term, and possibly longer depending on how long the conflict lasts.

“In the context of our income statement, the increase in costs is not an immediate crisis, but it’s just more bad news on top of other bad news,” Stormers chief executive Johan le Roux told Daily Maverick.

Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone was similarly phlegmatic about the current increase in prices but did concede it could be a problem down the road.

“Flight costs will have a massive impact for playoffs (if we get there),” Rathbone said in a text message.

“We currently have one trip left for EPCR and the team is staying on win or lose (depending on Stormers vs Toulon result) for the URC tour. Those flights have been booked a while ago, so there is no impact there currently.”

Sharks CEO Shaun Bryans said the increase in flight costs would add to the financial strain teams are under.

“In terms of air travel, it’s early days and it’s not a big deal just yet, but it could become a potential problem down the line,” Bryans said.

“We have an EPCR Challenge Cup game against Connacht at the beginning of April and then two away URC games. And we’ve secured our flights for those.

“There could be an impact for the second tour, which is the URC, because those are booked on Emirates and even if Emirates are telling us that it’s safe, I don’t want to send my team into potential danger if the war situation is not resolved.”

Availability

The biggest issue, though, won’t be costs, but how many flights there are, if the current situation remains the same or worsens.

If teams can’t fly through the Middle East, they would need direct routes from Johannesburg or Cape Town, to somewhere in Europe to connect to Ireland, Wales or Scotland.

“While there are a some popular European airlines that could act as alternatives for the Middle Eastern carrier, they don’t have capacity. We haven’t seen any increase in flights to South Africa since the conflict started and these European airlines were already close to full, especially during busy times,” Stefan van der Merwe, CEO of Sure Travel, told the South African travel industry portal, Travel News.

“The fact is, it is not just South Africa that is affected. This is a worldwide challenge. So even if these airlines decide they are going to deploy their extra aircraft, it will not necessarily be on South African routes. There are many other destinations that have been impacted where they may rather deploy their extra capacity.”

The South African club CEOs recognise that getting flights might the real issue, rather than the cost of them. And it works both ways, since it might also be a problem for teams touring South Africa in future, which could bring the entire URC and EPCR tournament integrity into question.

Under an agreement with MyPlayers, the players’ trade union, which started in July 2025, all South African travelling teams must be allocated 15 business class flights and eight premium economy flights. Theoretically that allows all members of a playing 23 to avoid cramped seats on packed flights.

In a perfect world with numerous flights, that is achievable, but as the number of flights dwindles, so do options for business class and premium economy seats.

According to Erin Maxwell of Max Travel, as of this week, the big Middle Eastern airlines – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar – were back up to operating a combined total of eight to 12 flights per day, which was up from only two to four per day a week earlier, but down from a peak of 14. It only serves to underline the volatility of the situation.

“Emirates is operating at roughly 75% of normal capacity currently and from a South African perspective, it feels close to normal,” Maxwell told Daily Maverick.

“Qatar is at about 20% of normal operations. Earlier this month it was running repatriation and limited flights in the Middle East only.

“Etihad are steady but limited to 50% of normal capacity and continues to operate a reduced schedule.

“The main thing is trust, so most people still won’t fly the Middle Eastern carriers for the next couple of months.

“The current increase in capacity (versus earlier this month) means very little right now, and doesn’t mean the European carrier’s availability will change or pricing will come down.”

The war has led to a 30% to 80% surge in demand for European carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM.

However, these airlines have explicitly stated they have no plans to add capacity to South African routes. Instead, they are strategically deploying limited aircraft to higher-yield markets in Asia.

For a rugby team needing to move 40 players, coaches and medical staff to Europe within 48 hours of a result, “sold out” signs are a greater threat than expensive tickets.

Late bookings because of uncertainty over play-off outcomes will also be a huge factor in securing flights - at any cost.

The lack of frequency of flights has the potential to damage the high-performance environment as teams cannot afford to have players arrive in dribs and drabs. Some might arrive on Monday, others on Wednesday due to limited seat availability.

That type of disruption compromises recovery protocols and tactical preparation for the most critical matches of the season. DM

Remaining overseas fixtures for SA teams

Investec Champions Cup & EPCR Challenge Cup

Sharks: Away vs Connacht (Galway, Ireland) – 3 April 2026.

Stormers: Away vs Toulon (Toulon, France) – 4 April 2026.

Bulls: Away vs Glasgow Warriors (Glasgow, Scotland) – 4 April 2026.

Stormers (Potential quarterfinal): If the Stormers beat Toulon and the Bulls lose to Glasgow, the Stormers must travel to Glasgow the following weekend.

United Rugby Championship Regular Season

Bulls: Away vs Dragons RFC (Newport, Wales) – 17 April 2026.

Sharks: Away vs Ospreys (Bridgend, Wales) – 18 April 2026.

Sharks: Away vs Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland) – 24 April 2026.

Bulls: Away vs Scarlets (Llanelli, Wales) – 25 April 2026.

Stormers: Away vs Ulster (Belfast, Northern Ireland) – 8 May 2026.

Lions: Away vs Leinster (Dublin, Ireland) – 9 May 2026.

Stormers: Away vs Cardiff Rugby (Cardiff, Wales) – 15 May 2026.

Lions: Away vs Munster (Limerick, Ireland) – 16 May 2026.