Qatar Airways hit by stoush

Qatar Airways chief Akbar Al Baker hurriedly left a conference of aviation executives after news of the crisis in his country broke.

The high profile Al Baker was seen at a lavish welcome function at a hotel resort in Cancun, Mexico, on Sunday night but wasn’t at the meeting the following day.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt announced they were breaking diplomatic relations with Qatar and told their nationals to leave the emirate within two weeks.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt closed all transport links with Qatar, banned Qatari planes from landing and forbade them from crossing their air space.

They allege the government of Qatar supports Islamic extremists in the region, claims Qatar denies.

Qatar Airways flights have to avoid Saudi airspace according to the terms of the ban.

Qatar Airways began flying to New Zealand in February and Flight Centre said it had received calls from worried travellers.

Its general manager of product, Sean Berenson, said there would be very few travellers from New Zealand affected by the announcement.

“For anyone due to be flying on Qatar Airways it is business as usual, unless they are flying from Doha to one of these seven nations, Maldives, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”

The diplomatic crisis is another blow for Qatar Airways which has been hit by the ban on laptops in its planes on flights to the US.