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A diplomatic argument between Qatar and its neighbors is currently threatening Qatar Airways operations:

Several countries have cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism in the Gulf region.

Neighbours including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have closed their airspace to Qatari planes.

I have a flight going to Pisa via Doha with Qatar Airways. If it's banned from using the Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi airspaces, then what will be its route?

Should I be worried about my flight?

Community
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judaytee
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  • My next Qatar Airways flight to Europe is on Thursday. Personally, I do not expect any problems. – Calchas Jun 06 '17 at 14:08

2 Answers2

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At the moment, they can still 'escape' via Iran, like this picture from FlightRadar24 shows:

enter image description here

and from there to Turkey and Europe. As Alexander notes, this is because they can still use the Bahrain airspace; Bahrain committed to the IASTA which forbids them to close the airspace to other members, like Qatar.

More information can be found here.

In any case, you should definitely pay attention to any information regarding your flight, and you can expect it to take a little longer because of the detour.

Glorfindel
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    I am not sure your answer is correct. Right now Bahrain has not closed its airspace to Qatar, but when it does, Qatar Airways may be effectively locked out. – Alexander Jun 06 '17 at 11:32
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    Ah, that seems to be correct, but it isn't really clear from the picture above, which shows Bahrain and Qatar as one airspace region. Still: While the countries are free to refuse landing rights, it is unclear if Bahrain and the UAE can legally ban Qatar Airways from its airspace. As signatories to the International Air Services Transit Agreement, Bahrain the UAE can't legally shut off its airspace to fellow signatory Qatar. – Glorfindel Jun 06 '17 at 11:36
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    Not legally, but illegally. Is there a court Qatar could drag them to? – Alexander Jun 06 '17 at 11:43
  • If they're illegally closing it, could Qatar Airways illegally use the closed airspace? – Glorfindel Jun 06 '17 at 11:44
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    That depends on whether they're willing to take the risk of being shot down. – Peter Taylor Jun 06 '17 at 12:01
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    @Alexander I doubt any there is anything an international Court which can enforce this. Airspace is a property of the country and no country can be forced to do anything. Many countries block Israel and vice versa. They just avoid the airspace and seek alternate route. That's all Qatar can do too. – Max Payne Jun 06 '17 at 12:49
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    @Glordindel The rulers of Bahrain and the UAE are absolute monarchs who have the power to change what is legal at the stroke of a pen. They aren't going to shoot down a QR passenger flight. But QR isn't going to infringe airspace declared closed to them by the sovereign rulers of the airspace, being protected only by a piece of paper. Let's deal with practicalities. – Calchas Jun 06 '17 at 14:11
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    Does Bahrain actually own that airspace? The maps that are circulating around seem to be of FIRs (which is why some of them, including this one, show nothing for Qatar - others show the Doha TMA carved out of it), not territorial airspace. How does territorial airspace actually work over international waters? (the area in question is in Qatar's EEZ) – Random832 Jun 06 '17 at 17:11
  • @PeterTaylor- the issue is that Bahrain provides ATC in international airspace to the north of Qatar. Indeed, Bahrain is in charge of ATC over Qatar itself, above a certain altitude. But I don't think Bahrain is going to start shooting down civilian airliners in international or Qatari airspace over this, the most they can do is block their actual territorial airspace which is far less extensive than their FIR where they provide ATC services. As Bahrain itself is tiny, I don't believe that their blocking their own airspace has much effect. The others, particularly Saudi Arabia, matters more. – Ivan McA Jun 07 '17 at 07:58
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    @MaxPayne- sovereign airspace is a property of the country, yes, but what the map he linked shows is FIRs which cover who provides ATC in a particular region and can extend into international airspace or indeed other countries' airspace. A country cannot block access to its FIR on sovereign grounds. – Ivan McA Jun 07 '17 at 08:08
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    @Alexander I believe that article confuses FIRs (who runs ATC in a given region) and sovereign airspace. They are not the same thing. Much of what is shown as the Bahrain FIR in that map is international airspace and they can't forbid Qatar from flying through it. Indeed Bahrain even controls ATC above Qatar although that is obviously Qatari airspace. – Ivan McA Jun 07 '17 at 08:11
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Based on the FlightAware site, many flights are unaffected, some (mostly flights to south Europe) will have to fly longer.

Generally:

  1. Flights to east and north Europe fly over Iran and Turkey, and are unaffected.
  2. Flights to south Europe fly over Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which have blocked their airspace. They'll have to take a longer path, over Iran and Turkey.
  3. Flights to east Asia fly over the Persian Gulf and Iran and are unaffected.
  4. Flights to Africa fly over Saudi Arabia. They'll have to take a longer path, around the Arabian peninsula.
  5. Flights to Jordan fly over Saudi Arabia. They now take a longer path over Iraq (which is normally avoided by all carriers).
ugoren
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