Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) has initiated four legal actions against the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, seeking a total of "at least" USD5 billion in compensation for their collective blockade of Qatar.
"Qatar Airways is seeking full compensation for these damages in four investment arbitrations, brought under three separate treaties, namely: the OIC Investment Agreement; the Arab Investment Agreement; and the bilateral investment treaty between the State of Qatar and Egypt. The Notices of Arbitration make clear that by imposing the measures against Qatar Airways, the blockading states have violated their obligations under the agreements, including by expropriating and failing to adequately protect and secure Qatar Airways' investments, discriminating against Qatar Airways, and failing to provide fair and equitable treatment to the airline and its investments," the airline said in a statement.
The airline did not specify the amount of compensation it was seeking from each of the four countries.
The four countries banned all air, land, and sea connections from Qatar, including overflights, without prior notice on June 5, 2017, allegedly in response to Qatari involvement in backing regional "terrorism". The blockade, which continues to be enforced, has forced Qatar Airways to cut around 20% of its capacity which had been deployed to the blockading countries and to start flying much longer routes on some of its services to Africa, Latin America and Europe.
Qatar Airways has often blamed the blockade for its poor financial results in 2018 and 2019.
Recently, the International Court of Justice confirmed that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) does have the jurisdiction to determine the legality of the blockade and to order its end. However, the international arbitrations are separate proceedings inasmuch as Qatar Airways does not seek to end the blockade through them but rather to obtain financial compensation.
"The decision by the blockading states to prevent Qatar Airways from operating in their countries and flying over their airspace is a clear breach of civil aviation conventions and several binding agreements they are signatories to... The blockading states must be held accountable for their illegal actions in the aviation sector, which includes a failure to comply with their obligations under bilateral agreements, multilateral agreements and international law," Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said.
