Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced it has taken additional steps to decisively curb Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) operations in the kingdom.

The GACA said in a statement issued June 6 that in line with a Saudi government directive to cut all transport links with Qatar, it has now decided to cancel all licenses granted to Qatar Airways. It has also ordered the closure of all its offices in Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. Licenses granted by the Authority to all Qatar Airways staff have also been revoked effective immediately. The Bahraini Civil Aviation Affairs Department (CAAD) along with the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) have taken similar steps and have gone about closing all Qatar Airways offices in their respective territories.

To assist customers stranded on Saudi territory, Qatar Airways organized a series of evacuation flights on Tuesday, June 6, using Oman Air (WY, Muscat) aircraft. The flights from Jeddah International flew to Muscat with onwards services offered to Doha Hamad International. However, Flightradar24 ADS-B data indicates that Oman Air services, in addition to those of all other carriers seeking to serve Doha, have not been without incident as they are now forced to bypass the Emirates Flight Information Region (FIR) entirely. The GCAA had previously warned in a NOTAM that any aircraft attempting to use its airspace for flights to Qatar would need to gain security authorization prior to departure.

On Monday, June 5, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) collectively severed all diplomatic ties with Qatar while simultaneously imposing an air, sea, and road blockade on the peninsula state.

The Saudi Gazette reports that several other states, including the internationally-recognized government of Yemen, the interim Libyan government, the Maldives, and more recently Mauritania and the Comoros, have joined the diplomatic embargo. Mauritius is reported to have joined the list though no official confirmation has been issued. For its part, Jordan has announced it has scaled back diplomatic ties with the Qataris but has not severed them completely. Though Morocco has not taken sides in the crisis, its national carrier, Royal Air Maroc (AT, Casablanca Mohammed V), on Tuesday, June 6, announced it had canceled codeshared flights with Qatar Airways via Doha to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Egypt as a result of the air embargo.

The Saudi-led bloc collectively accuses Qatar of sponsoring terrorism while siding with regional rival, Iran, an allegation Doha has denied.

Reports in the Arab media indicate that before any talks concerning the normalization of ties can begin, the four Arab states have demanded Qatar close a number of sponsored media outlets including the Al Jazeera news channel, long a thorn in the sides of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed/New Arab newspaper, often accused of pro-Muslim Brotherhood bias. Other demands include the expulsion of all Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas leadership currently in Qatar, as well as Azmi Bishara, the publisher of Al-Araby Al-Jadeed/New Arab.

Kuwait is currently mediating the crisis.