Arab states including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Libya, the internationally-recognized government of Yemen, and even the Indian Ocean archipelago of The Maldives, have severed diplomatic ties with Qatar effective immediately.

The group collectively accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism given its backing for the Muslim Brotherhood, the world's oldest Islamist movement, and for its open support of regional arch-rival, Iran.

As a consequence of the move, Saudi Arabia, through the official Saudi Press Agency, has ordered its land border with Qatar closed while air and sea traffic to the gas-producing state are to be halted as well. Saudia has officially confirmed via its social media streams that all service to Doha has been suspended with immediate effect.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has followed suit with Etihad Airways, Emirates, flydubai, and now Air Arabia announcing they will suspend all flights to and from Doha Hamad International from Tuesday, June 6, until further notice. In a statement to its website, Abu Dhabi Airports confirmed that all ten daily flights between Abu Dhabi International and Doha will be suspended until further notice. The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has also issued a NOTAM requiring any non-Emirati carriers wishing to transit its FIR en-route to Qatar, to obtain prior approval from its Aviation Security Affairs office.

Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement early Monday saying it would withdraw its diplomatic staff from Doha within 48 hours and that all Qatari diplomats should leave Bahrain within the same period. Qatari citizens have been ordered to leave Bahrain within two weeks. Air and sea traffic between the two countries will also be halted within the next 24 hours. Gulf Air has also confirmed no further flights between Bahrain International and Doha will operate from June 6 onwards.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry has also announced the closure of its airspace and seaports to all Qatari transports. The Qatari ambassador has also been given 48 hours to leave the country. EgyptAir said in a statement that it intends to operate two flights to Doha on Monday, June 5, before suspending them outright from June 6.

Unless otherwise stated, all border and airspace closures are expected to be effected over the next 24 hours.

For its part, Qatar Airways has issued an official statement on the matter confirming the suspension of all flights to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt with effect from 00h00Z, June 6 until further notice.

Loss of access to the Saudi and UAE markets will have a significant impact on the carrier given that they are its two most important markets by weekly seat capacity. According to ch-aviation capacity data, Qatar Airways deploys 33,691 and 31,427 seats per week to Saudi Arabia and the UAE respectively along with 6,937 weekly seats to Egypt and 6,840 weekly seats to Bahrain. Overall, 18.12% of Qatar Airways' total weekly seating capacity is deployed to these four markets.

In addition to the loss of direct market access, Qatar Airways will also suffer significant financial losses as a result of being banned from transiting Emirati, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, and Bahraini airspace. Qatar is nestled in the Gulf with all four states' Flight Information Regions (FIR) playing critical roles in its access to destinations in Africa, Latin America, and Southern Europe. As such, service to cities such as Khartoum and Casablanca Mohamed V may become impractical given the significant flight path deviations that would have to be taken in order to avoid these four nations' airspaces.