A joint US-Israeli attack on Iran forced airlines to cancel or delay at least 27 flights from Hong Kong to destinations in the Middle East on Sunday, leaving travellers stranded at the city’s airport.

Hundreds of passengers packed Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday morning to inquire about the suspended departures, primarily to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Doha in Qatar and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Luo Kui, a 45-year-old Shanghai software architect, was stranded overnight in Hong Kong after his Cathay flight to Dubai, scheduled at 5pm on Saturday, was cancelled.

On Sunday morning, the airline gave him two options: he could either keep his connecting flight to Dubai – tentatively rescheduled for March 4 – but pay for his own accommodation until departure, or change his ticket and return to Shanghai.

“This isn’t fair,” Luo, who has worked in Abu Dhabi for two years, told the South China Morning Post. “A flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong takes only a few hours – about a third of the time it takes to fly from Hong Kong to Abu Dhabi. In a fair situation, the airline should refund some money to us.”