Qatar Airways Group’s chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, has called on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) to declare the blockade on flights from the airline by the boycotting Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries illegal.
“We are not a political body, we are an airline, and this blockade has stripped us of the rights which are guaranteed to us,” he said.
Icao told Bloomberg today (Thursday) that it was reviewing requests from the Qatari government to assess the flight restrictions imposed by some of the GCC countries.
In a statement released yesterday (Wednesday) by the airline, he noted that a vast majority of flights were operating as scheduled following the flight restrictions imposed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
“Qatar Airways’ global operations continue to run smoothly, with the vast majority of our network unaffected by the current circumstances,” added Al Baker. “As far as we are concerned, it is business as usual.”
