June 16, 2017
Qatar has approached United Nations (UN) for help following the diplomatic crisis between gulf neighbors. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were encouraged to slash all the diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar and to exclude all the Qatari aircraft from their airspace after rising of major safety concerns regarding Qatar’s link with terrorist groups.
Qatar has sent a letter to the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) for resolving the dispute over the closing of Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabian airspace to its planes. This situation has introduced the major diplomatic rift for many years and is severely affecting the Qatari lifestyle.
It is reported that the ICAO is uncertain to intervene but meetings are being conducted in Montreal, Canada. ICAO does not have strong legal act however, it can produce certain impact via its safety and security standards.
The chief executive of Qatar Airways has made his feelings clear in that ICAO should declare the measures against Qatari air traffic to be illegal. “We have legal channels to object to this,” he said. “ICAO should heavily get involved and put their weight behind this to declare this an illegal act.”
Due to the ban imposed, Qatar Airways has to take long routes to continue its long-haul flight operations. The Doha-based airline will bear the loss of almost 52 Gulf flights every week which accounts for 30 percent of its revenue. UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are the destinations from where Qatar Airways derives 18 percent of its capacity.
