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of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement that any licenses granted to Qatar Airways employees would also be withdrawn.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.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain revoke Qatar Airways’ licenses
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain revoke Qatar Airways’ licenses
The art of war: fears for masterpieces on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi
- UAE paid more than €1 billion to borrow priceless works, but experts in France want them back
PARIS: The Middle East war has raised fears for the safety of priceless masterpieces on loan from France to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the museum’s only foreign branch.
The Abu Dhabi museum, which opened in 2017, has so far escaped damage from nearly 1,800 Iranian drone and missile strikes launched since the conflict erupted on Feb. 28.
However, concerns are mounting in France. “The works must be removed,” said Didier Selles, who helped broker the original agreement between France and the UAE.
French journal La Tribune de l’Art echoed that alarm. “The Louvre’s works in Abu Dhabi must be secured!” it said.
France’s culture ministry said French authorities were “in close and regular contact with the authorities of the UAE to ensure the protection of the works loaned by France.”
Under the agreement with the UAE, France agreed to provide expertise, lend works of art and organize exhibitions, in return for €1 billion, including €400 million for licensing the use of the Louvre name. The deal was extended in 2021 to 2047 for an additional €165 million.
Works on loan include paintings by Rembrandt and Chardin, Classical statues of Isis, Roman sarcophagi and Islamic masterpieces: such as the Pyxis of Al-Mughira.
A Louvre Abu Dhabi source said the museum was designed to protect collections from both security threats and natural disasters.
