Since June last year, the tiny but vastly wealthy Arab country of Qatar has been blockaded by most of its Gulf neighbours – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.
Its only land border (with Saudi Arabia) has been closed, and its ships are banned from Emirati ports.
As a passenger flying from the capital Doha to Australia on a Qatar Airways flight you'll notice the effects of the Arab boycott just by following the route on your screen.
Where once the jet would have headed south across the Saudi desert, it is now forced to take a much longer course over the waters of Arabian Gulf because the airline is barred from the airspace of its neighbours.
And yet, the blockade – supposedly imposed because of Qatar's alleged links to terrorism and closeness to Iran, a claim Qatar vigorously denies – seems to have had absolutely no effect on the staggering rise of the national airline.
In the past year alone, Qatar Airways (QR) has:
▪ added 11 new destinations to its international reach (including Canberra, Cardiff and a return to London Gatwick on May 22), surpassing the 150-destination milestone.
▪ placed an order with Boeing for 200 aircraft, worth $US20.2 billion.
▪ confirmed its deal with Airbus for 37 A350-1000s – the largest commitment by any airline for the new plane which will be one of the most fuel-efficient ever built.
won its fourth Skytrax "Airline of the Year" award since 2010.
▪ won Skytrax's "Best Business Class Award", largely because of its Qsuite concept – fully enclosed "rooms in the sky" with seats that combine into double-beds in the middle aisle.
▪ announced five more destinations: Lisbon, Tallinn, Malaga, Mykonos and Thessaloniki.
Not bad for an airline that (though launched in 1994 as a regional carrier with a handful of routes) really dates its existence from 1997 when the then-Emir (now father of the current Emir) unveiled his vision of turning Qatar Airways into an international carrier of excellence.
Of course, it wasn't exactly a new idea. Both Emirates (Dubai) and Etihad (Abu Dhabi) had pioneered this route before: translating current oil money into a tourism future, challenging the existing aviation hubs of choice.
In the Antipodes we tend to see Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, etc, as stopovers on the way to Europe – alternatives to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
But it's not called the Middle East for nothing. Qatar Airways, for example, now has 10 direct flights to the US (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC with Las Vegas to be added this year).
So how did it grow so quickly? How has it eclipsed seasoned airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and all of the US international carriers? In short: oil money, vision and ambition.
Plus, some would say, the man appointed to relaunch Qatar Airways 21 years ago, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker.
Which is why so many British and international aviation journalists turned up in early May for a Q&A session in Cardiff, a day after Qatar's inaugural flight from Doha to the Welsh capital.
In the press conference, "His Excellency" or "The Chief" (as he seems to be known in aviation circles) was flanked by two Welsh dignitaries.
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Tag: Qatar News