>>1683131The reason why the middle east stopover makes sense is that
1: the middle east is pretty much a perfect location for a massive airline hub (connecting south asia, europe and africa)
2: when you're doing very long distances such as Kangarooland to Europe on a direct flight, half the fuel the plane carries is just to compensate for the weight of the fuel it needs to go that distance. Planes are more efficient when they're not doing super long distances because they can carry less of this heavy fuel. -> Therefore stopping at a hub not only allows you to capture customers from many other cities to go to a certain destination, it allows for lower fares because of lower fuel costs and economies of scale.