Travel chaos as Qatar, UAE close airspace, Nigerian travellers on edge

• Flights to Doha, Dubai diverted 

Nigerians planning to travel around the world through Doha, Qatar, Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates are on edge as the closure of UAE and Qatar airspace late Monday night, as missiles were fired from Iran towards US bases in Qatar and Iraq, threw commercial air traffic completely out of gear.

Within an hour, the UAE airspace was also closed. That threw flights completely out of gear. “At this point, point, there’s utter chaos and we can’t even guess the impact,” said a senior official of multiple airlines.

The Nigerian market is served by biggies, including Emirates and Qatar. Dubai and Doha are key transit points between Nigeria and the rest of the world.

A former President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mrs. Susan Akporiaye, said the situation would throw air travel into global chaos because of the high passenger volume controlled by Qatar and Emirates.

She said the situation is further compounded by the time of the season, which is summer, stressing many people would not have a choice but to cancel their flights for a later date.

Although Qatar has not yet suspended their Nigerian operations, it is looking inevitable that the carrier would do so as it would not want to take risks and especially when the airspace is shut to air traffic.

Hundreds of passengers from all over the world connecting through Doha and Dubai are left stranded in many airports across the world due to the closure of airspace.

There are indications that Hundreds of lights to and from the region — which houses mega hubs like Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, along with multiple smaller ones like Sharjah — were impacted.

The airspace closure in the region started around 9 pm (IST) when Qatar closed its airspace for commercial airliners to ensure the safety of citizens, residents and visitors.

As a result, a large number of flights headed to Doha were impacted. The en route ones diverted to other nearby places like Abu Dhabi or Bahrain. Some returned to their origin cities; boarding for those about to depart was put on hold, and others were suspended till the airspace restrictions remain in force

Wole Shadare