Five Gulf state carriers, namely Emirates, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia, Fly Dubai and Saudi Arabian Airlines, have all announced the suspension of flights to Doha, Qatar. The move comes after Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all cut diplomatic ties to Qatar over its support of Islamist groups and its relations with Iran.
I have gathered together all the facts and information in this exclusive report:
I’m sure Akbar Al Baker won’t be happy with this. Toughen by the electronic device sanctions given by US, it would be a huge blow for Qatar Airways.
I think for flights to Europe, America, or Asia, this sanction won’t effect much as these flights don’t fly over these countries’ airspace. Although a huge frequency cut will be a serious problem for them
I can’t say it’s Gulf carriers as Qatar Airways is one of them. Anyway, here is the travel alert issued by Qatar Airways regarding this serious sanction
Yes, I have included all of that in the initial report! But I agree, Al Baker will not be happy with this at all. Qatar’s share price has not been announced since but it will hit the floor when released!
Well some people want information directly from trustworthy sources. No offence…
Suit yourself. We give you aviation news. Everything you want to know about how aviation has been affected by this. I haven’t found a report detailing all airlines involved and statements from all of them, have you?
Well you don’t have to be so rude
It sounded like you were shouting. @SingaporeAirlines was just providing other sources. Big deal.
I don’t, I think it makes for interesting discussion as long as it stays civil.
Every time I post a news topic someone has a go This time it’s because I used an exclamation mark to express exclamation and that is automatically taken as rude. Does make for interesting threads.
Everyone here:
This is quickly turning into one of these. It’s fine, no need to get on ones case about the use of an exclamation point.
I’m sorry if the links on my post did offend you. I just wanted to show some other sources
I can only wish if Gulf Nations can fix their relationship soon. As this doesn’t give them an advantage at all. Both Qatar/Iran side and Saudi Arabia/UAE/Egypt side are disadvantaged by this sanctions I believe
Anyway, Do EK/EY allowed to fly above Qatari Airspace? If not, that would be a backfire for them as most of their European flights passed above Qatari Airspace
I don’t think it is a backfire for EK/EY routes. They can always fly over Saudi Arabia or Iran without touching Qatari airspace. QR on the other hand…
Hope this conflict gets resolved soon.
But I believe, they have to deviate abit as they crossed Qatari’s waters which is their airspace when they have to do a flight to Europe/US
I wasn’t offended, I was just making that point.
Back to the topic itself.
This whole situation is due to the fact that Saudi are blaming Qatar for helping IS. Even though Saudi do it themselves. They are the ones who called for this to happen in other countries as well, because they have so much power. They also supply Qatar with a lot, for example 40% of Qatari food imports are from Saudi. As of today, the border has been closed, meaning Qatari trucks at stuck at the Saudi border trying to get back in. They are doing this supposidely to cut off IS, probably because the UK asked them to do something about IS, because the UK has had 3 recent terror attacks and Saudi and UK are good friends who controversially trade weapons.
Qataris are currently very disadvantaged, all embassy diplomats are being sent back to Qatar immediately and Qataris living in UAE, Saudi etc have been asked to leave in the next 14 days.
I suppose Qatar could play the dirty game if they wanted, and shut off their airspace. But then Saudi would drag Iran in and cut off their airspace to Qatar flights, so Qatar would have no air services. It’s a very dangerous game. At the moment, I’m looking at FR24 and I still see EY and EK jets nearby or over Qatar.
Qatar Airways themselves have not really responded, other then cutting Saudi flights and hinting at cutting flights to these other nations. They have to fix this problem, because it destroys trade links and has a very negative effect on the majority of Qataris. We’ll see how this plays out over the next few days, but share price has hit the floor in Qatar and I don’t see all powerful Saudi as being very lenient.
As @Kizzyjet has since said, EK and EY could just go around Qatar, but this would increase flight times and be a bit inconvenient
I believe Saudi won’t drag Iran to their alliance as both countries don’t have a good relationship (Sunni and Shi’a Islamic difference). Why would Iran help to disadvantage Qatar when Qatar supports their relationship with them. I believe, Qatar can also lobbying Iran to close Iran’s airspace for them and make a chaos among Emirates, Etihad, Saudia for their flights to Europe and US which is more possible imo
Wow, I hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. Yes, you are right, it is unlikely Saudi would manage that. But think of the uproar if Iran did that for Qatar. Suddenly everyone on Saudi’s team would put restrictions on Iran and on Qatar, heavily. A peaceful resolve needs to come of this, because the area will become more destabilised than it already is.
That would be a scary scenario if that happened. If this conflicts can’t be solved in near future. It would disadvantage both parties and as one of the result, many flights could be cancelled because of this issue and would make losses for ME3s.
In the end, This issue won’t only involve Aviation world. But this also effects to the political stability and economy on that region. This issue could make Fuel prices skyrocketing if this couldn’t be solved in near future
Here is some of the examples that got diverted by the sanctions
https://www.instagram.com/p/BU9DQ6NA5Dz/
I wonder how they’d now fly to Africa or Latin America…long routes now!
Wow, that flight to Beirut! May even double the flight time, it’s ridiculous!
but from what I know that Bahrain center ATC who are responsible for managing flights above Qatar, Qatar and Bahrain have the same airspace…will Qatar have its own center, or Doha approach/departure who will be the new responsible of Qatar’s airspace?
