Arab boycott brings untold losses to Qatari carrier

Mohamed Abdelghaffar

The member states of the anti-terrorism Arab quartet were compelled to cut off their trade and diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017, with the latter insisting to maintain its support to terrorist organizations.

Losses

The boycott included preventing Qatari airplanes from using the airspace of the member states of the quartet, namely Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The borders of the four states were closed to Qatari nationals.

These measures have had negative effects on the Qatari regime, even as the regime tried a lot to downplay these effects. It worked to convince Qatari citizens that the boycott would not have a deep effect on their country.

Qatar’s national carrier, Qatar Airways, has been at the center of all this. In the first fiscal year after the boycott, Qatar Airways sustained $70 million in losses.

According to a statement by the company in September 2018, its operation costs increased by 17.8%, which brought these costs up to $11.6 billion.

In the previous year, the operation costs of the company were $10 billion. The cost of fuel also increased to $3.4 billion, compared to $2.3 billion in the previous year.

In July 2019, the company expected to sustain even more losses because of the boycott of the member states of the quartet.

The boycott made it necessary for Qatar Airways to use longer and more difficult air routes, having to avoid the airspace of the four member states of the quartet. This made it incur more losses.

The number of air routes used by Qatar Airways dropped to two after the boycott, from 18 before it, the company said in a statement.

In 2018, the number of travelers using Qatar Airways dropped to 29.1 million, compared to 32 million before the boycott.

These losses make it more likely for Qatar Airways to request financial support from the Qatari government.