For years, Qatar Airways has been desperate to boost capacity on lucrative routes to Australia’s four largest cities, but the airline’s ambitions have faced just one obstacle… the Australian government just wasn’t that keen on granting the Doha-based carrier additional flying rights.
Determined not to be thwarted by the ice-cold reception of some Australian lawmakers, Qatar Airways discovered a genius loophole to increase flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane without going through the laborious process of getting additional flying rights.
Late last year, it was revealed that Qatar Airways had acquired a 25% stake in Virgin Australia and the airline was going to use this investment to relaunch its international operation that was abruptly ended at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s the clincher. Virgin Australia doesn’t have any long-haul aircraft, so it said it would hire Qatar Airways planes and crew to operate the flights on its behalf – a deal known as ‘wet leasing.’
Where does Virgin Australia plan to fly these wet-leased aircraft? Just one destination, and you guessed it… All 28 weekly international flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane will fly non-stop to Doha.
Rather than needing the approval of lawmakers, Qatar Airways simply needed to convince the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that this wetlease agreement would be a good deal for Australian consumers.
On Friday, the ACCC gave its final nod of approval for the partnership between Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways to go ahead, with the first flights from Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth to Doha set to launch in June 2025, followed by flights between Melbourne and Doha in December 2025.
“We consider that the conduct is likely to result in public benefits such as adding additional capacity on flights between Australia and the Middle East and is likely to result in minimal, if any, public detriment,” commented ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey on Friday.
“This will likely place downward price pressure on these routes and will also give customers of Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways a greater choice of international flights with additional connectivity and loyalty program benefits.”
Brakey said it had dismissed concerns from an unnamed airline that the wet lease agreement would undercut Australian aviation jobs, reasoning that the probability of an Australian airline launching flights to Doha within the next five years was pretty much nonexistent.
Flights have been on sale since November 2024, when the ACCC gave interim clearance for the wet lease agreement but under the condition that consumers would receive full refunds if the deal were later canceled.
It remains up for debate why Qatar Airways has struggled to get its own flying rights to Australia increased, especially in comparison to other Gulf-based carriers, especially Emirates.
One argument is that the Australian government has sought to protect flag carrier Qantas at the expense of legitimate rivals because the airline has a major codeshare partnership with Emirates.
On the other hand, Transport Minister Catherine King insists that one of the main reasons why she rejected a request by Qatar Airways for additional flying rights was because of an October 2020 incident at Doha Hamad International Airport when Australian citizens were taken off a Qatar Airways plane and subjected to forced vaginal examinations.
