The Qatar Turmoil Fallout: Flights, Food, Football And More

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-05/qatar-turmoil-fallout-flights-food-football-and-more

From the article:

Flights

As reported overnight, Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Dubai's Emirates are suspending all flights to and from Doha, starting from Tuesday morning. Both carriers operate four daily return flights to Doha. Budget carriers FlyDubai and Air Arabia are also cancelling routes to Doha, with other airlines, including Bahrain's Gulf Air and Egyptair expected to follow suit. It comes after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt all said they would stop flights in and out of Qatar, and close their airspace to the country's airline, Qatar Airways.

And it is Qatar's flag carrier that risks being the biggest loser. Its flights to places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Cairo will stop. That is dozens of flights a day.

Qatar Airways has already said it is cancelling its services to Saudi. It said: "All customers booked on affected flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be provided with alternative options, including the option of a full refund on any unused tickets and free rebooking to the nearest alternative Qatar Airways network destination."

But a bigger, if not existential threat, to Qatar Airways is being banned from large chunks of airspace: according to a report by CAPA — Center for Aviation, "losing Saudi, Bahrain and UAE airspace would effectively ground Qatar Airways," CAPA. That's because Qatar actually has very little airspace relative to the size of the country.

"It is largely surrounded by Bahrain airspace (the Bahrain FIR), a slither on the south is managed by Saudi Arabia while the UAE is on the eastern border," CAPA stated. While losing access to Saudi airspace will force Qatar Airways into the costly maneuver of rerouting its Africa-bound flights, losing access to Bahrainian airspace could be catastrophic because it almost completely encircles Qatar.