Middle East Aviation Outlook 2019: Saudia shifts the balance

DESPITE THE near-mediaeval nature of aviation's regulatory structure, it is only relatively rarely that politics intervenes to disrupt airline connections. Perhaps it is the socio-humanitarian nature of the industry's role that often places mere political differences in the shade.
A trade war between the US and China scarcely ruffles the waters of the airline relations between the two great powers (although China has been known to use the might of its outbound tourism value occasionally to dampen traffic flows, when Korea or Japan was being castigated for one reason or another). Generally, frosty political relations tend not to overflow into air services.