'There's nowhere to go': Ferrari has started taking supercars to the Middle East by airplane

Ferrari has switched to air delivery of supercars assembled on special order to circumvent a logistical blockade in the Persian Gulf, Financial TImes has learned. The legendary brand was forced to take this step after the region's seaports became inaccessible to ships due to the US war with Iran.

Ferrari last week suspended shipments of most cars to Gulf countries, retaining only "single deliveries by air" for the highest-priority orders, the Financial Times reported.

Whereas before the Iran war, air delivery cost the company and its customers about three times as much as sea transportation, now it costs four to five times as much, the newspaper says.

For Ferrari, the personalized car segment is critical: exclusive equipment and customization services generate about 20% of the carmaker's revenue, the FT added.

Britain's Bentley said it was using existing stock in the region to fulfill orders placed before the Iran crisis and was not shipping by air. BMW-owned Rolls-Royce told the FT it was doing "everything possible" to meet demand from its Middle Eastern customers, but declined to give details. Volkswagen has warned that war in the Middle East will hurt sales of its luxury cars, noting that the region is "significant" for premium brands Porsche, Lamborghini and Audi.

Former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer characterized the situation in the global market extremely pessimistically: "There is simply nowhere to go. It's been an awfully long time since I've seen ... every market in such a sorry state," he noted. And although most manufacturers claim that there are no cancellations of orders already placed, top managers in the industry state that new applications are not coming in, writes the FT.

The Middle East region is of key importance to luxury car manufacturers, as the local wealthy are willing to spend large sums to customize their cars. Bentley CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser described the Middle East as "the best market in the world" in terms of profit contribution. However, he expressed concern about the current situation: "We are very concerned about the situation. Certainly people in the Middle East have other things on their minds at the moment than looking for a new Bentley".

The decline in activity is already noticeable: a European automaker said it is suspending plans to open new dealerships in Saudi Arabia due to a drop in attendance at its Abu Dhabi showroom. "It's gotten very, very quiet," the head of the European company admitted on condition of anonymity. According to him, it is almost impossible to redistribute volumes to other markets without losses: "It is difficult to get the same profitability for the business by redirecting cars that would have been sold in the Middle East, somewhere else".

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor