CAPA Stats Show Potential Impact of Qatar Flight Suspension
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APEX Insight: According to statistics from CAPA, the Qatar flight suspension could affect over 130,000 seats per week, and would add up to more than seven million lost seats over the next year, should the suspension continue.
Major Middle Eastern airlines have suspended all flights to Qatar amid an escalating diplomatic crisis in the region. Etihad, Emirates, flydubai and Gulf Air said Monday they will stop flying to Doha, the Qatari capital, starting tomorrow morning. Qatar Airways has retaliated with the suspension of all flights to Saudi Arabia, effective immediately, and the suspension of all flights to the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain as of tomorrow.
APEX Media has obtained the following statistics from CAPA, showing the staggering number of weekly seats that could be lost resulting from cancelled flights. All told, the numbers represent over 200,000 lost seats in both directions per week, and could add up to over 10 million lost seats over the next year, should the suspension continue.
Qatar Airways has more daily avg flights to the countries severing ties than those countries have to State of Qatar pic.twitter.com/W8AYauyPuV
— Will Horton (@winglets747) June 5, 2017
| Airline Seats (Weekly, One Way) | UAE | Saudi Arabia | Egypt | Bahrain |
| Qatar Airways | 31,657 | 34,051 | 7,368 | 6,951 |
| Other Airlines | 24,570 | 2,343 | 4,247 | 3,412 |
Today’s news comes after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain decided to cut off all diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Saudi Arabia said it took the decision based on Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region.” Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry has asserted that the measures were unjustified and based on false assumptions, and that “It reveals a hidden plan to undermine the state of Qatar.”
“Airline travel should fly above politics whenever possible.” – Joe Leader, APEX CEO
APEX CEO Joe Leader expressed concern of the impact this news will have on commercial aviation at large. “Airline travel should fly above politics whenever possible,” he said. “Having this develop into an overnight flight ban is a setback for the countries involved and our industry. APEX hopes that there will be a positive resolution quickly for all countries and carriers involved to serve passengers.”