Saudi Arabia, Bahrain revoke Qatar Airways’ licenses

RIYADH/DUBAI: Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on Tuesday revoked the licenses of Qatar Airways and ordered its offices to be closed within 48 hours, as the two Gulf Arab states severed transport links with Doha in a diplomatic row.
Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement that any licenses granted to Qatar Airways employees would also be withdrawn.
A few hours later Bahrain announced it had canceled licenses granted to Qatar Airways and had also asked the airline to close its offices within 48 hours, the official Bahrain News Agency reported.
Analysts said the fallout from canceled flights resulting from Saudi Arabia’s action would cost Qatar Airways millions of dollars in lost revenue.
“The revoking of the license suggests that this spat will be a long and drawn out. You don’t revoke licenses if you expect a resolution quickly,” Saj Ahmad, the Britain-based chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, said.
“The real challenge is what Qatar can do to mitigate (the losses), and right now, it doesn’t look like it is in a position to do anything.”
Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority said customers seeking adjustments on tickets to or from Qatar should communicate with the company by phone or through its website.
Dozens of people crowded into the Qatar Airways office in central Riyadh on Tuesday morning, asking for refunds or to be re-booked on flights with other airlines.
“We’re trying to get refunds, but the problem is the logistics. Now if you want to re-book, how are you supposed to deal with the hotel booking, the rental car, the visa?” Ganas Al-Ganas, a Saudi national planning a trip to Europe, said.
The suspension of flights comes three weeks before the start of the Eid holiday week, a popular time for travel in the Gulf.
Qatar Airways said on its website it had arranged three chartered Oman Air flights to transport passengers from Jeddah to Muscat on Tuesday. A connecting Qatar Airways flight would then take them onwards to Doha.
The airline also canceled flights to Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE on Tuesday, the day after it had suspended flights to Saudi Arabia.
The head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Tuesday urged Gulf countries to restore air links with Qatar, warning of major travel disruptions.
“Of course we accept that countries have the right to close their borders,” said IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac.
“But connectivity with Qatar must be restored as quickly as possible,” he told AFP, speaking on the sidelines of the group's annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
Airline executives at the IATA meeting said it was still unclear how the measures would affect air travel.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al-Baker hastily left the meeting Monday.
“We hope the crisis will disappear and aviation is coming back to normal,” said Abdul Wahab Teffaha, the head of the Arab Air Carriers Organization which groups 33 airlines.
“We have to monitor the situation in the next couple of days. The Doha-Dubai sector is particularly busy and we are currently analyzing the situation,” said Christoph Mueller, chief digital and information officer at Emirates airline.
“We operated our last flight just a couple of hours ago, and we are updating the traveling public in time,” he said.