Qatar Airways Middle East landing & airspace restrictions; wider ramifications for global aviation

For much of this decade, Middle East aviation has been besieged by external events throwing markets in disarray. Now there is a dispute of internal making. Four countries - Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - are cutting ties with Qatar for political reasons. Local flights are being cancelled while Saudi Arabia has shut its airspace to overflights from Qatar Airways.

Saudi is not a signatory to the "Transit Agreement" which followed the Chicago Convention. Bahrain and the UAE are signatories and have airspace far more relevant to Qatar. For the open skies-seeking UAE to abandon its Transit Agreement obligation is a big call, but with this incident highly charged, uncertainty pervades. The ban on flights has a greater impact on Qatar Airways, which operates more flights than all other airlines combined. Local traffic is impacted and so too is Qatar's global network, which relies on Saudi and the UAE as large source markets supporting its superconnector network.

More significantly, public confidence in aviation has been dealt a blow and for aviation there are no long term winners from this. A speedy resolution is needed. It stems from a much broader issue than aviation alone, but hopefully, in this tight knit global industry, airline operations will not be disrupted for long.