Insurance experts are warning that the Iran conflict has exposed a fundamental gap in how British holidaymakers protect themselves, with hundreds of thousands finding themselves in a situation their standard policy was never designed to cover.

Every year, millions of British tourists connect through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi on their way to destinations including Thailand, Australia, the Maldives and South Africa. When US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the closure of Gulf airspace on 28 February, those connections collapsed overnight, along with the assumption that a standard travel insurance policy would cover what came next.