Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) is planning to use capacity freed up by the loss of access to markets in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to accelerate its international expansion plans.

The four Arab states announced an air embargo against Qatar earlier this month in retaliation for what they claim is the gas-producing state's support for terrorist groups and Iran. With it now banned from Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian, and Bahraini airspace, Qatar Airways has been hit with an 18% surplus in weekly seating capacity.

While earlier speculation had pointed to the possible grounding of a sizeable chunk of the carrier's 200-strong fleet, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Akbar al Baker has confirmed the now surplus capacity will be put to work in accelerating the addition of twenty-four new destinations that include: Abidjan, Accra, Cardiff, Chiang Mai, Chittagong, Douala, Dublin International (launched on June 12), Kyiv Boryspil, Las Vegas Harry Reid, Canberra, Libreville Leon M'Ba, Lisbon, Palma de Mallorca, Medan Kuala Namu, Mombasa, Nice, Prague Václav Havel, Rio de Janeiro International, San Francisco, Santiago de Chile, Sarajevo, Skopje, and Utapao.

"You know that, not too long ago, I announced that I was going to increase to twenty-four new destinations," he told Al Jazeera news in an interview. "I couldn't do it because I had capacity restraints. Now that we have a release, capacity from the eighteen destinations, that we have been barred illegally from operating, we are now going to accelerate the other regions of the world, where we feel that we will mitigate the reduction in passenger numbers from this eighteen destinations. So Qatar Airways has a robust plan B, to continue our march ahead."

Boeing (BOE, Washington National) Vice President (Marketing) Randy Tinseth told Reuters that despite the crisis, the US manufacturer has not yet seen any "significant" changes to its Middle Eastern customers' order books.

"They may be a bit more cautious and careful as they go forward but we're not seeing a significant uptake in deferrals or cancellations at this point," he said.

al Baker added that the carrier is considering legal action to secure compensation from the four Arab states given the monetary impact the embargo has had.

“We are following this very closely to make sure that all our business streams are properly documented in order for us, in future, to go to international tribunals to reflect the pain,” he said.