Few options for travellers stranded by West Asia conflict

The disruptions have left people jumping 'from one cancellation to the next'

- CHRISTINE CHUNG, NIRAJ CHOKSHI & GABE CASTRO-ROOT

INSTEAD OF SLEEPING, Dr Eddine Saich, 38, a French physician who is stranded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with his family of five, stayed up researching ways to get home after his connecting flight to Abu Dhabi was cancelled during the weekend. He tried to identify which cities still had direct routes that connected to Paris. He looked at flying through India, Turkey, even Ethiopia.

"I even considered going the other way around, trying to route through the United States to get home, but either the flights didn't exist at all, or they were completely unaffordable," said Dr Saich, who is from Lille.

"And now we're just jumping from one option to another, from one cancellation to the next."

As the conflict with Iran rages, thousands of travellers remain stranded not only in Israel and the United Arab Emirates, but also in more distant places that rely on connections through global hubs like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Qatar.