A senior official from Qatar’s Hamad International Airport stated that a travel and trade blockade imposed by four Arab states has spurred air-freight volumes to record highs.
Badr Mohammed al-Meer, the airport’s chief operating officer, said that the closure of Qatar's only land border with Saudi Arabia has led to an airlift-style operation to safeguard the supply of goods and produce spanning fresh milk to industrial gear previously transported by truck.
As a matter of fact, Qatar Airways has scrapped flights to 19 cities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt as a result of curbs imposed by the countries on June 5 last year.
The surge in air freight has been led by imports from countries including Turkey, Iran, Morocco and Australia, substituting for loads that would have been flown or shipped from the boycotting states or trucked in from Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s new seaport opened in 2016, and the country had largely relied on the trans-shipment of containers from Dubai’s main port in Jebel Ali.
Qatar Airways, the world’s second-biggest cargo carrier, has 23 freighters, all of them wide-bodies, and in April placed on order for five more Boeing Co 777Fs each with a capacity of 102 tonnes and worth a collective $1.7bn at list prices.
Tag: Qatar News