As of today, Qatar has closed its airspace following an Iranian attack targeted at U.S. military bases in the nation. This has left airlines and passengers scrambling for alternative options.
Doha Hamad International Airport is stuck with no flights departing or arriving. The UAE had also closed its airspace, but appears to be slowly opening it back up as of 18:50 UTC.
Qatar Airways issued the following statement:
Here are a few things you’ll notice when looking at flight routes and patterns right now.
This is what the surrounding airspace looked like as of 18:21 UTC. Flights can be seen taking a detour far around Qatar, and making their way to their destination.
Many Qatar Airways flights can be seen diverting back to their origin. Flight QR110 and Flight QR8, in the image above, turned around over Italy and are returning to London.
Many flights were initially returning to nearby airports until other countries joined in closing airspaces.
As of now, 18:51 UTC, UAE airspace appears to have reopened, and flights are taking off and landing at Dubai.
This Emirates flight above tells us the story in the Middle East today. The flight had to detour around Israel, then detoured around Qatar before approaching Dubai. A lot can be seen in this one flight path, and it’s a stark reminder of the current situation in the region.
The Middle East region is an incredibly busy area for flights, and closures like this have a significant impact on operations, not only for Qatar flights but for surrounding flights and airports as well. This development can also have an effect on many Middle Eastern carrier’s ability to fill seats moving forward, as many international, connecting passengers may opt for an alternative route instead of transiting through the Middle East. We’ll have to wait and see for developments, but today’s events no doubt highlight the uncertainty and unrest in the Middle East.
I’m monitoring this situation, and I’ll update this blog with more as we get updates.
Featured image by the author.
