Qatar Airways forced to transfer Dubai flights to Sohar airport in northern Oman
Qatar Airways has transferred some of its flights from Dubai International to Oman’s Sohar Airport after four Arab countries cut ties with Doha over its support for extremists.
At present only two low-cost airlines operate from Sohar, after Oman Air abandoned flights there three months ago after only six months of operation because of a lack of demand.
Qatar Airways will start flying to Sohar three times a week from August 8.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed all transport links with Qatar on June 5.
Saudi Arabia closed Qatar’s only land border and all four countries banned Qatari planes from entering their airspace, and barred Qatari nationals from passing through their airports.
Qatar Airways flies to more than 150 destinations worldwide but was forced to halt flights to 18 Middle East destinations last month when the crisis erupted. Before the bans, Qatar Airways used UAE airports for a third of its regional operations. “Sohar is close to the UAE, just 30 minutes’ flying time,” a Qatar Airways source said.
“It makes sense to move the operations from Dubai to Sohar. That means we are going to re-route all our flights that were previously operating in Dubai to Sohar, including air freight.”
“Qatar Airways may well use Sohar port to link with its air freight cargo for shipments through its port for exports and imports,” said Ahmed Al Habsi, an economic analyst at Capital Investment Company.