When War Reaches the Airport: What Your Expat Health and Life Cover May Not Pay for in a Conflict Zone

October 2026

By Will Glyn

Picture a departure hall in a capital city on a Saturday afternoon, and a missile landing in it. That is roughly what happened at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport during a run of strikes that began in the first week of October, with the deadliest on 10th October. The strike on 10th October killed at least 12 people according to Saudi officials and wounded 309, with the toll later reported as 13 after an injured Indian national died. Six aircraft were damaged, and airlines have been moving billions of dollars of jets out of the capital.

The insurance industry’s response has been to point at the small print. In Australia, the industry position is that standard travel policies exclude losses caused directly by war and conflict. Smartraveller lowered its advice for the UAE and Qatar to Level 2 on 8th October. Within days it told Australians not to travel to Riyadh’s main airport. A lower advice level does not change the war exclusion.

Saudi Arabia’s 2022 census counted 13,382,962 non-Saudi residents, and estimates based on GASTAT data put the figure at about 15.7 million in 2024. Many of them, and many more across the wider Gulf, hold international health, life or evacuation policies with “act of war” wording they have never read. This piece covers what that wording does, where evacuation benefits stop, and the questions I would put to an insurer in writing. I am not going to guess how the conflict develops, because the contingency planning is the same whichever way it goes.

War risk is a separate product, even for the people who insure aircraft

Airlines show how the market treats war. The six damaged aircraft have a combined insured value of about 375 million dollars, according to an internal insurance report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Saudia, Riyadh Air and flyadeal are due to renew their aviation war-risk policies next month. The losses could push up their insurance costs. War risk is bought, limited and priced as its own layer, and it is repriced after events like these.

Individuals sit in a similar position with far less visibility. A standard policy is built around illness, accident and ordinary travel disruption, and war sits outside it unless the wording brings it back in. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has sided with insurers in most of the Middle East cancellation disputes it has determined. Those were travel claims, not Gulf residents’ health claims, but they show how these disputes tend to run when the clause is clear.

Passive war cover decides most medical claims

Many international health plans include what the industry calls passive war and terrorism cover, designed to pay for treatment if you are injured as a direct result of war, a terrorist attack or political violence. The phrase to look for is “innocent bystander”. One international health insurer’s notice to its Dubai members says its plans cover treatment arising from war and terrorism where the member is an innocent bystander, and tells members to check the exclusion wording in their plan agreement.

Locally issued plans can read differently. Crowe’s UAE team noted that war risk is excluded even in mandatory health policies, with a caveat requiring insurers to treat bodily injury until the patient is stabilised, and it flagged possible disputes over how that caveat is read. If your employer provides a local plan and you hold a private international plan on top, the two need reading separately.

Take someone hit by debris in a terminal. With passive war cover, the hospital bills are likely to be covered. With a flat war exclusion, the insurer may deny a claim for an injury directly caused by an act of war, and “directly caused” is the phrase that matters, according to one UAE insurance guide. Which of those two plans you hold depends on a few lines of policy wording.

Medical evacuation and security evacuation are different benefits

A lot of people assume “evacuation” covers any exit, but it does not. For most policyholders, evacuation is covered only when a treating physician decides the care you need is not available locally. Moving you out because staying has become unsafe is a different benefit. Security evacuation may be a separate benefit that applies when civil unrest or another covered security event makes remaining unsafe, and eligibility and coordination requirements apply. One industry assessment notes that standard policies may need a specific rider to cover security evacuation.

The logistics matter as much as the wording. The suspension of operations at King Khalid was extended through 17th October, according to a US Embassy alert. The FCDO’s current advice is that British nationals wishing to leave should consider travelling by land to a neighbouring country and flying from there. Smartraveller suggests road, rail or bus options to hubs in the UAE and Qatar. A benefit that assumes a flight from the nearest airport needs a second plan for when that airport is shut, so I would ask the insurer how its assistance provider would get you out.

Life cover and income protection: read the exclusion, not the brochure

A life policy is a contract under which the insurer promises to pay a sum to your beneficiaries on your death. Depending on the contract, terminal or critical illness can also trigger a payment. What I look for is the exclusion list: whether death caused by war or terrorism is covered, whether any exclusion applies only to military service, and whether living in a named country changes the terms.

Wording differs from insurer to insurer, and I would not assume yours matches a colleague’s. Even within the United States, state rules vary. The NAIC’s chart shows Montana allowing an individual life policy to exclude death resulting from war, while Ohio refers to an exclusion for military service in time of war. Income protection and critical illness plans carry their own exclusions, so the same check applies to them.

What happens to cover when a government changes its advice

The FCDO moved on 16th October to advise against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia as a whole. It still advises against all travel within 10km of the Yemen border. The FCDO page also states that “Your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against advice”. That does not mean every policy is automatically void, because it depends on the policy conditions, the circumstances of travel and the insurer’s terms. Smartraveller has now raised its advice for Saudi Arabia as a whole to “do not travel”.

These warnings are aimed at people taking trips, and whether a residence-based health or life plan reacts to them depends on what your policy says. Some wording refers to government advice, some to a list of countries, and some only bites at renewal. If you hold a British passport, an Australian one or an American one, the advice that counts may be your home government’s or your host country’s, and the wording should say which.

Timing matters too. One analysis of US and Canadian travel-policy wording found several insurers treating the Middle East conflict as a ‘known event’ from 28th February 2026, so travel policies bought after that date generally exclude conflict-related losses, though exact cut-offs vary by insurer. I cannot tell you from the outside what any insurer will do at your next renewal, which is why I would ask in writing.

Questions to put to your insurer

These are the questions I would ask, and I would ask for the answers by email with the clause references.

• War and terrorism — Is injury or death from war, missile or drone strikes, or terrorism covered, excluded, or covered only for innocent bystanders?
• Definition of war — Does the exclusion need a declared war, or does it also capture undeclared hostilities?
• Evacuation triggers — Is security or political evacuation included, who decides when it starts, and must you contact the assistance provider first?
• Closed airports — If the nearest airport is shut, how would the provider move you, and does the benefit cover a land route to another country?
• Government advice — Does cover change if a government raises its warning, and which government’s advice counts?
• Renewal — Can the insurer reprice, add an exclusion or restrict cover for your country of residence at renewal, and with how much notice?

How We Can Help

At PWA, we are independent advisers who treat protection as one part of a wider financial plan.

• Life cover — Our site describes global life insurance for expatriates of all nationalities, paying a lump sum to your family if you die. It can be combined with critical illness cover.
• Independence — We are not owned by a financial institution, and we represent over 60 financial institutions.
• A regulated network — Our planners work within a regulated IFA network with over £1 billion under management and over 120 offices worldwide.
• Planning around your circumstances — We provide personalised financial planning for people living and working around the world, so your cover sits alongside your pensions, savings and education fee planning.

If you would like to talk through the cover you hold and where it fits in your wider plan, you can book a call with me.

Will is an Independent Financial Adviser with over a decade of experience helping expats make the most of their international status.