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A travel guru has shed light on when flights to and from the Middle East might recommence. At present, airspace closures have left hundreds of thousands of passengers marooned in the wake of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Data firm Cirium reported that 1,579 out of 3,990 flights scheduled to fly to the Middle East on Sunday were cancelled. Dubai - a pivotal link between Europe and Asia - is the world's busiest airport, processing over 200,000 passengers daily.

Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi collectively handle around 500,000 passengers per day. This situation is not only causing massive disruption for those planning to travel via the Middle East in the coming days, but also leaving thousands of people stranded.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, travel and aviation specialist Alex Macheras suggested that the situation is likely to remain challenging for the foreseeable future. He stated: "Airspace will not reopen whilst there is activity or the risk of future activity. We really need a hardline reassurance in the industry that this situation is over in order to resume operations, and we are not there yet, not anywhere close.

"But the uncertainty is there because they are unable to tell these passengers how, when or if they are going to be able to get them out as long as the skies remain closed. This is why we've seen the reporting about potential land routes using land borders through Saudi Arabia, which remains open."

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UK-based aviation consultant John Strickland stated "hundreds of thousands of people" in Dubai or other Middle Eastern hub airports "weren't supposed to be there". He noted that seats on direct flights to and from Asia were being snapped up rapidly owing to heightened demand for services which were less susceptible to disruption.

Macheras revealed that British holidaymakers were being given flexible arrangements regarding their upcoming travel plans. He explained: "These airlines have introduced policies where if you are still at home, for example in the UK, and your journey is in two or three weeks, you are able to go in and refund, whether you booked directly with the airline or if it's part of a package for example or with a travel agent.

"You can go in and refund; they're being very flexible about it with this. So that's those who are yet to travel.

"Those who are already there and were caught up in this, perhaps in transit, and there are tens of thousands of people affected here. The exact number the UK government are looking at is close to 100k. They are being looked after, that's the crucial thing, number one.

"So these states, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, they are pretty good when it comes to hospitality in these scenarios in a crisis and passengers are being taken care of in hotels with meals and whatnot and so that's kind of one thing off the list."