Islam Times - Egypt Resumes Air Travel with Qatar

Islam Times - The head of Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority, Ashraf Noyer, announced on Tuesday that Cairo has resumed air service with Qatar and lifted the air embargo imposed on flights of Qatar’s airlines to the North African country following the over 3-year freeze.

Earlier in January, Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced resumption of air, land and maritime travel with Doha after long-standing conflict, caused by the severance of diplomatic ties between Qatar and other Arab states.

On January 11, Bahrain’s civil aviation authority also said that it would reopen its airspace for Qatar-registered planes.

“After the decision to lift the ban, EgyptAir and Qatar Airways, as well as private companies, have the right to relaunch air travel at airports of the two countries and send flight schedules to the Egyptian and Qatari civil aviation authorities for approval,” Noyer said, as cited by the Youm7 newspaper.

Noyer added that Egypt’s civil aviation authority has approved requests submitted by the Qatari authorities to allow the latter’s aircraft to cross Egyptian airspace.

In 2017, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of “meddling and sponsoring terrorism”.

Several other countries later did the same while others downgraded their diplomatic ties with Doha and introduced a total blockade of the country.

Doha has consistently denied the accusations, insisting that the neighbors’ discontent with its economic successes was behind their hostile policies.

The impasse was overcome in early January, when the Saudi-hosted 41st summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council signed a joint declaration on the restoration of relations with Qatar.