The story: The Jan. 5 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Saudi Arabia has resulted in the “Arab Quartet” (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the UAE) now re-opening their airspace to Qatar Airways. This significant step, which follows a years-long boycott of Qatar, underscores the easing of intra-Arab tensions, especially considering that Gulf-based carriers have been very much part of that rivalry.

The coverage: On Jan. 12, Qatar’s Al Jazeera, citing Egyptian state media and aviation sources, reported that Egypt—the last of the countries of the Quartet to do so—has “reopened its airspace to Qatar Airways.”...