Uh Oh: Qatar Closes Airspace, As Qatar Airways Grounds Flights

Operating in the Middle East can be tricky enough under the best of circumstances. However, this situation is now getting even messier…

Qatar closes its airspace to commercial flights

Within the past hour, Qatar has completely closed its airspace to commercial flights, a decision made “in order to ensure the safety of citizens, residents, and visitors.” For now the airspace closure is just temporary, for the coming hours this evening. So it’s anyone’s guess when the airspace will reopen.

Interestingly, just 24 hours ago, Qatar Airways posted a message on social media basically talking about how the airline plans to continue operating interrupted. One certainly imagines that there’s a specific reason that flights are being grounded right now.

There are roughly 100 aircraft currently enroute to Doha, so expect to see lots of diversions. So far, we’re seeing most planes go to Abu Dhabi (AUH), Bahrain (BAH), or Dammam (DMM). If airspace remains closed for an extended period of times, this situation could get very messy.

It’s anyone’s guess what exactly is going on

It goes without saying that there’s a major conflict going on right now with Iran, so it’s not surprising in general to see operational complications. For example, several days ago, American suspended its route to Doha.

However, I think we can all agree that the timing here is interesting, of Qatar completely closing its airspace with no advance notice. If the concern were simply regarding potential unrest in the region, you’d think the country wouldn’t necessarily close its airspace to inbound flights that are already enroute.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has simply stated that “the relevant authorities announce the temporary suspension of air traffic in the country’s airspace,” and that “this is part of a set of precautionary measures taken based on developments in the region.”

Bottom line

Qatar has closed its airspace effective immediately, and that means all Doha-bound Qatar Airways flights are currently diverting. Given the size of Qatar Airways’ global network, this could get very messy. I’m mighty curious what is prompting this, specifically. Maybe we’ll learn in the coming hours…

What do you make of Qatar closing its airspace?