It’s a busy Thursday morning at Fiumicino Airport, but Qantas check-in is peacefully quiet. My suitcase is promptly tagged to my final destination, Melbourne, and I’m reminded to collect the bag in Perth for customs clearance before dropping it off again. Given airspace disruptions in the Middle East, this is currently the only flight between Europe and Australia running non-stop in each direction (Qantas’ Paris flights are detouring through Singapore, and Perth-London flights do the same when flying west).