The article below is an excerpt from Simon Calder’s travel newsletter. To get the latest from Simon delivered straight to your inbox, simply enter your email address in the box above.

An evening flight represents a joyful opportunity. Heading away, departing after dark means you can save a day’s holiday. Coming home, having a full day before take-off provides an opportunity to make the most of your location. You can put all your energy into exploration, knowing you have nothing more demanding to do at the end of the day than choose between chicken or beef and water or wine.

Sunday in Jakarta was a perfect example. I was staying in the amazing House of Tugu: a museum with many theatrical touches that also happens to be a well-run and indulgent hotel. At £140 a night, it is at the top end of the room rates in the Indonesian capital. But I would still stay there at twice the price. Artifacts and vegetation from across South East Asia have been assembled within five floors of wonders. A welcome massage, afternoon tea and a tour through the jungle of nature and creativity are among the complimentary extras.

Sunday had begun with a rickshaw ride from the heart of the original Dutch settlement to the harbour – where a cheerful dinghy owner offered an hour’s boat trip around the maritime hub. Then I ventured into Jakarta’s Chinatown, a cacophony of commerce and cuisine. The Indonesian capital is not immediately beguiling, but after a day of welcome surprises I left vowing to return.

At the airport, I was greeted by two rare sights: a police dog wearing sunglasses – and a plane shortly to take off to the Middle East. The departure screens showed both Emirates to Dubai and Qatar Airways to Doha as cancelled. But my ticket was on Etihad to Abu Dhabi. Flight EY475 was operating for the first time in days to a location deemed dangerous by the Foreign Office because of the risk of attacks from Iran.

As with thousands of other British travellers, the soaring cost of alternative flights persuaded me to take a chance. After a smooth connection in an eerily quiet Zayed International Airport, I arrived back at Heathrow slightly late on Monday morning – and raced through the UK Border, due to the collapse in passenger numbers at Terminal 4. No drama – unlike the wonderful House of Tugu.

In the three weeks since the US-Israeli assault on Iran began, triggering retaliation from Tehran on the Gulf states, investors in airlines have lost a fortune. Ryanair’s share price is down by one-seventh, easyJet’s by a quarter, while the price of aviation fuel is surging.

Yet the message from the aviation leaders I talked to yesterday about the unfolding crisis was: don’t panic.“People are flying, the planes are full,” says Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of easyJet. “We’re seeing a drop in demand in the last few weeks. We’re now working with the tourism ministries to see what they can do to incentivise the aircraft still coming. We’re working with the hoteliers to see what they can do on the holiday side to give better pricing.”

His counterpart at Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, says fares are rising – but due to travellers switching to Europe, not because of more expensive oil. “We’ve hedged our fuel out to March 2027, so Ryanair has fuel cost certainty for the next 12 months. We don’t see any reason to impose a fuel levy. But if bookings continue to shift toward European travel, and demand rises through Easter and into the summer, prices in Europe will rise because capacity is constrained.”

With Easter fast approaching, some readers have been in touch with concerns about travelling at a time of such high geopolitical tension. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) told me: “You’ll always have somebody who says, ‘Should I be worried about flying?’ There’s absolutely zero concern about flying. It’s no different today than it was a year ago. It remains the safest form of transport. It will continue to be safe. People will make sensible decisions.”

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