Qatar Airways Seeks $5 Billion Compensation For Gulf Blockade

Aha, this should be exciting. My original thought was "Al-Baker's being extra again. On what grounds is he filing this claim?" Then I read of the treaties which appear to be intact :D.

On another note about the airline, I sincerely hope they get to keep their Brisbane route. Thinking about going next year, hopefully all will be alright by then.

Very cool, to see there is action going on now!
I hope they all bleed and it should be even more than those $5 Billion, especially as it was based on 1 countries lead (Saudi Arabia) only and other followed as it was convenient.
Hope Egypt bleeds to death on this, as Religion should NEVER be a reason to follow somebody else. Judging others is easy, but they never looked at how much sh*** those countries have on there own stick!
From the Business loss as well as the ecological burden on all that, which most people keep forgetting if you need to fly for a rout that usually takes 2 hours now have a flight time of 3 1/2 hours, that's nuts and helps nobody!
Being afraid of competition sometimes leads to crazy actions, like this one!

"Qatar Airways does by all accounts seem to be in the right here when it comes to the legality of the blockade."

I doubt most countries would support Qatar on this front. If ICAO rules that Qatar can't be stopped from using the airspace of other countries it could have some serious consequences.

Wouldn't that be the equivalent of a country not having authority over who gets to use it's airspace?

How is that any different from Israeli flights being banned from Qatari Airspace?

I'm with UAE on this one, they should have the final authority over who uses their airspace.

@Lucky - Will we see flying rights restored, particularly DXB to DOH via QR, anytime soon?

"Rights" in the middle east... hah.

@Andre - The odds of that happening is kinda low. The ruling mainly focused on the airspace restrictions. And while I’d say they get to use their airspace, they can’t really fly into DXB/AUH/RUH/BAH because these governments own the territory and it’s no longer an -international territory/airspace-.

I could be wrong here...

Could Qatar Airways ask for aircraft belonging to airlines owned by these countries to be impounded? If so, this could get interesting real fast.

As alluded to by some other commenters, I would be interested to hear how this differs from Israeli flagged aircraft, and aircraft bound for TLV.

These four countries should be ashamed of them selves! Qatar such a beautiful country has to deal with this crap. Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain- That is DISGUSTING and VERY STUPID

Good for QR. But lots of luck collecting, even if they are awarded damages. Governments always believe they are exempt from the rules they impose on others.

Even if these countries were to reopen airspace to Qatari flagged aircraft there is a serious corporate security question about whether QR would want to use them. It could risk their insurance coverage.

Every country has sovereign rights over their airspace. The difference is that the four blockading countries are party to the various international investment treaties quoted, essentially contracts, that require them to open their airspace to Qatari flagged aircraft. That is the difference to the Israeli example.

I wonder if Qatar will let this slide if in return they get use of the airspace...