Doha: After the United Arab Emirates accused Qatari fighter jets of intercepting a flight. No official statement was issued by any of the UAE airlines operating companies.
Financial Times reported that spokespeople for Etihad, Flydubai and Air Arabia airlines said that their aircraft had not been involved in any incidents. Emirates, the other carrier from UAE, declined to comment and diverted the request for comment to the UAE’s civil aviation authority.
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras said that if Monday's incident had taken place as described, he would expect the airlines involved to come forward; a formal complaint to be made to international bodies; and passengers on board the flights to have shared pictures.
"The international community for aviation expects the UN to be notified with details of the interception, time, coordinates, location and a full run-down of what happened ... exactly like what Qatar supplied the UN with when the UAE military flew over Doha's economic area," Macheras told Al Jazeera.
"Until then, it seems these accusations are more in retaliation to being the subject of Qatar's UN complaint rather than a genuine occurrence."
King's College London academic, Andreas Krieg, said he thought the allegation that Qatar intercepted Emirati airliners was "fake news" and that the country had no incentive to breach International Air Transport Association (IATA) rules.
"Qatar is in full compliance with IATA regulations," Krieg told Al Jazeera. "Qatar has built its entire narrative on being a reliable partner in multilateral organisations and institutions."
Krieg, a defence, said the UAE was partaking in a "massive media campaign" against Qatar, which was aimed at undermining the country's international reputation.
He accused the Emiratis of spreading "alternative facts" and said that since June 2017, the vast majority of claims made by the UAE "were either exaggerated, manipulated or blatant lies".
Qatar on Monday denied that it had intercepted a UAE passenger plane headed to neighbouring Bahrain, shortly after the United Arab Emirates accused Qatari fighter jets of intercepting a flight.
Qatar's Government Communication Office dismissed report by media in blockading countries as part of a "smear campaign" against it by the UAE.
"These matter should be dealt with by filing a formal complaint to the U.N. Security Council, as Qatar has done following two breaches by UAE military aircraft of the state of Qatar's airspace, and not by distributing unauthenticated videos to the media as how the blockading nations have done since the start of the crisis," it said in a statement to The Associated Press.
At issue as well is language in the dispute. Intercepts normally refer to military jets flying alongside passenger planes and giving orders in emergencies.
On Friday, Qatar filed a complaint with the United Nations about an alleged violation of its airspace in December by an Emirati military aircraft.
(With inputs from Al Jazeera)
