Prominent airline Qatar Airways has announced on their official website they have canceled flights going to Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates from Tuesday until further notice. The decision to cut trips on these countries were made a day after they suspended their flights going to Saudia Arabia.
In an article published by The Guardian, Qatar Airways said that passengers holding a confirmed ticket to Bahrain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, or Saudia Arabia between June 5 and July 6 are permitted to rebook their flights. The passengers affected are only given up to 30 days after their current departure date to these four countries.
Moreover, Qatar Airways said that their offices in these countries would still have normal operations until further notice. Other than that, offices of the airways would still have their operations ongoing despite the crisis being faced by their country.
In an article published by Reuters, Qatar Airways rival airlines EgyptAir, FlyDubai, and Bahrain's Gulf Air announced their plan of suspending all of their flights to and from Doba last Monday. They joined other Middle Eastern-based airlines Etihad and Emirates in the move of suspending their flights.
Airline consultant John Strickland said that the suspension of Qatar Airways flights to these four countries would have a lucrative negative effect. "As a hub carrier with a small domestic market, feed traffic is their bread and butter," he said.
He said that Qatar Airways have benefited a lot from the surge of air traffic between Doha, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, which are three of the world's busiest international travel hubs. Gulf carriers also expanded their routes worldwide using newly built airports as bases with the effect of air traffic.
Currently, Qatar Airways declined to comment more about their decision. Their decision to cut trips is the result of Qatar cutting ties with seven countries, namely Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Maldives, and Yemen, on the basis of the country supporting various terrorist groups.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
