Featured Map for 15 June 2017:
Airways To and From Qatar

Last week, seven countries severed diplomatic relationships with Qatar and withdrew both landing and airspace rights for aircraft registered in Qatar (apparently with the exception of the Maldives). One of the countries was Saudi Arabia, with which Qatar shares its only land border. Another was Bahrain, which controls airspace over the Persian Gulf surrounding Qatar. Initially, Bahrain allowed the continued use of a pair of airways in and out of Qatar from Iranian airpspace: UR659 inbound and UT430 outbound. Last Thursday's Featured Map illustrated Qatar Airways' Circuitous Reroutes that resulted from the new airspace restrictions using flights to/from several African destinations as examples.

On Sunday, Bahrain relaxed restrictions to allow use of most airways within the Bahrain FIR with the exception of five airways which pass near Bahrain's capital. With Qatari flights still banned from overflying Saudi Arabi and the UAE, and with Qatar Airlines flights avoiding the airspace of war-torn Iraq and Syria, the additional airpsace doesn't materially shorten most flights but does reduce congestion near Doha.

Today's Featured Map zooms in to show a number of details:

• the initial inbound airway, UR659 (blue)
• the initial outbound airway, UT430 (green)
• still-restricted Bahrainian airways (red)
• the approximate path of yesterdays's QR 1395 to Casablanca (burgundy)
• selected nearby airports

References and additional information:

• NOTAMs for OBBB (Bahrain FIR) – PilotWeb (FAA)
• Civil Aviation Authority of Bahrain: AIS
  • AIP Supplement for Kingdom of Bahrain 06/2017: Standard Routes Document (25 May 2017)
  • Enroute Chart - ICAO (25 May 2017)
• Flight Ban for Qatar Flights in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt – FlightRadar24 (11 June 2017)
• Qatar Airways
• Great Circle Mapper
  • Featured Map: Qatar Airways' Circuitous Reroutes (8 June 2017)
  • Featured Map: Qatar Airways Suspensions (5 June 2017)