After three dramatic, sleepless days in Dubai, it was no surprise that Peter Mousaferiadis slept through the entire flight back to Melbourne.

The seasoned traveler was among tens of thousands of Australians stuck in one of the world’s largest transit hubs as the United Arab Emirates tried to defend itself from Iranian attacks.

“It was a terrifying experience, because you really weren’t quite sure what was happening,” he told ABC hours after landing on Australian soil.

The outbreak of war between Israel, the United States and Iran has closed one of the main routes by which Australians can fly to and from Europe, along the so-called Kangaroo Route.

Major Middle East airlines such as Qatar, Emirates and Etihad are almost completely grounded, leaving people like Mousaferiadis scrambling to find an alternative.

Combined with the war in Ukraine, which is in its fourth year, pilots from other airlines must now fly through a narrow passage into northern Iran, through Azerbaijan and Georgia.

RMIT aviation expert Justin Brownjohn says that even if the war in the Middle East ended tomorrow, “we probably won’t see a return to normal operations” for at least a week.

What this disruption means for the Kangaroo Route

Flagship airlines such as Singapore, Cathay Pacific and Qantas need to thread the needle if they are to meet demand for travel between Australia, Asia and Europe.

Airspace for commercial aviation is closed in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Israel. Syria has reopened a single air corridor in the north to serve airlines affected by those closures.

The most common route for Australian flights is now through the Caucus, through Azerbaijani airspace.

Pilots have been notified of an expected increase in traffic in that region.

But even that is threatened after a drone was fired at Azerbaijan on Friday, temporarily closing airspace. Iran denies responsibility.

Aviation expert Neil Hansford says that if that corridor north of Iran were closed, airlines could still route their flights south through Egypt.

“There would have to be a huge exponential expansion of hostilities before there was no way to fly over and go to Europe,” he said.

Although flight radar websites make the area appear crowded, Hansford said modern air traffic control systems were “highly computerized” and flights in different directions were routed at different altitudes to eliminate the risk of an accident.

The detours mean slightly longer flight times and a little more jet fuel burned, according to Hansford.

“The only additional cost Qantas has is for additional flights – for example, its direct flight from Perth to London now stops in Singapore for fuel,” he said.

But Brownjohn says even those slightly longer flights could throw off schedules and cause airlines to be unable to deliver a full schedule.

“Therefore, routes that may see multiple flights per day may lose one or two flights per day simply because capacity has to be redeployed elsewhere,” he said.

Unfazed European traveler

For Mousaferiadis, the dwindling options for flying between Europe and Australia will not deter him from making the trip again.

He wants to continue transiting Dubai once the crisis is resolved, but he is aware that not everyone will be on the same page.

“I have confidence that the UAE is more than capable of defending itself, and what I think what this conflict has shown is that they can do that,” he said, reflecting on how he witnessed the country’s missile defense systems operating against Iranian drones.

Charging…