Nobody is on a crusade to ban airlines from flying here based on the human rights records of their home countries. The one exception might be Qatar which is rightly being given a black eye over practices that have come to light during its preparations to host the World Cup.

What is sometimes argued is that Gulf carriers have an advantage over carriers based in other countries due to their employment practices, due to protectionism by their own governments, due to their having free access to infrastructure built by people who might be considered slaves, and due to other factors.

Feel free to ignore all of the above and yet howl about government protection of AC. Feel free to opine that we should allow our aviation policy to be written--unilaterally, of course--by foreign barbarians who imprison women for being raped.

Feel free to ignore the fact that we have open skies agreements with many countries. We aren't yet there with the Gulf states, and I see no hurry.