Qatar Airways Cannot Add More Flights to Australia

The Australian government has rejected Qatar’s request for more flights into Australia’s major airports, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

Under the current air services agreement between Australia and Qatar, airlines from Qatar are allowed to operate up to 28 weekly flights into Australia’s four largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. This equates to one return flight per day.

The current air services agreement between the two countries has been in force since 2016. It was supplemented by a Memorandum of Understanding in 2022. But the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts has listed the Qatari arrangement as “undergoing treaty process” for the past several years.

This combined allocation of 28 weekly flights is technically for all Qatari airlines – not just specifically Qatar Airways. However, Qatar Airways is the only Qatari airline that would realistically fly to Australia.

The Australian government does not limit Qatar Airways’ access to smaller cities such as Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, Newcastle, Gold Coast or Cairns. Of these, the only Australian airport currently served by Qatar Airways is Adelaide.

Qatar Airways wants more capacity into Australia

Qatar Airways has publicly said it would like to operate twice-daily flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The airline sees strong demand for more services to Australia.

Restricted to just single-daily flights to these airports (unless it gives up a destination), Qatar Airways has already upgraded its Sydney-Doha and Perth-Doha routes to Airbus A380s – its largest aircraft type.

Last year, Qatar Airways added a second daily flight to Adelaide which operates via Melbourne. This is effectively a second daily Melbourne-Doha flight. But by flying the aircraft onwards to Adelaide (after an overnight stop in Melbourne), Qatar Airways can take advantage of a loophole in the current regulations.

In addition to its 28 weekly flights to the major airports, Qatar Airways may operate up to 7 weekly flights to smaller Australian cities (such as Adelaide) via a major airport.

Pre-COVID, Qatar Airways also added a second daily Doha-Sydney flight that continued onwards to Canberra. (Most of the passengers disembarked in Sydney, but the extra tag leg from Sydney to Canberra made the flight possible.)

Why is the Australian government rejecting Qatar’s request for more flights?

Qatar Airways continued to operate flights to Australia throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, even when many other airlines suspended services. The airline even maintained services when Australian governments were restricting international airlines to selling as few as 8 seats per flight into the country.

According to the Australian Financial Review, Qatar Airways also helped evacuate Australians from Afghanistan in 2021. Qatar had reportedly been hoping that these goodwill gestures would help it to secure more traffic rights into Australia over the longer term.

But Transport Minister Catherine King has reportedly told a group of women who were subjected to humiliating searches at Doha’s Hamad International Airport in 2020 that “The Australian government is not considering additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”.

Qantas lobbied against this

Qantas has been lobbying against Qatar’s request, claiming it would be unfair to “non-government-funded airlines” (such as itself) and would cause Australian job losses.

But the decision has disappointed Australian tourism bodies. More international flights into Australia would increase competition, lower airfares and bring more tourists into the country. That’s ultimately better for consumers. For Australian frequent flyers, more Qatar Airways flights could also have meant more award redemption seats to go around.

Qantas announced in May that it was on track to make a record profit for the 2022-23 financial year on the back of strong demand and high international airfares.

Although Qantas and Qatar Airways are both part of the Oneworld alliance, the two airlines haven’t really got along in recent years. This culminated last year in Qatar Airways blocking Qantas Frequent Flyer members from accessing most of its reward seats. Qatar Airways now partners more closely with Virgin Australia.

Emirates and Etihad are not subject to the same restrictions because Australia allows airlines from the United Arab Emirates to operate a much larger amount of flights into the country.

What’s next for Qatar Airways?

Ultimately, this means Qatar Airways will not be able to launch any additional direct flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth for the foreseeable future.

Qatar Airways could launch flights to other Australian cities such as Canberra, Gold Coast or Newcastle. But with smaller populations and limited connecting feed available from those airports with its partner Virgin Australia, Qatar might not be able to achieve the yields it desires by flying to these places.

Qatar Airways could potentially upgrade its Melbourne or Brisbane flights to Airbus A380s. But the airline only has a small number of the super-jumbo aircraft in its fleet.

Qatar Airways could launch a triangle route such as Doha-Gold Coast-Cairns-Doha, or even a fifth-freedom route such as Doha-Gold Coast-Christchurch or Doha-Kuala Lumpur-Darwin.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.