Discussions to be held with Qatar over flight block, says department

A federal government department has taken the first step towards overturning the decision to deny Qatar Airways more flights.

A Qatar Airways flight at Perth international airport among a sea of parked Qantas aircraft in March 2020. Picture: AAP

A federal government department has taken the first steps towards overturning the Qatar Airways’ decision, revealing they will hold discussions about the current air services agreement.

The department of infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications and the arts received a request from the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) in late August to review the decision, made by Transport Minister Catherine King.

Qatar had sought an additional 28 flights a week into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, effectively doubling its capacity into Australia but was refused without explanation.

In a response to questions from The Australian, a department spokesperson said “they had responded to the QCAA indicating we will consider their request for consultations in accordance with the current Australia-Qatar air services agreement”.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King. Picture: AAP

“The department will be contacting the Qatar CAA shortly to arrange a mutually convenient time for these discussions,” said the spokesperson.

It’s understood such consultations did not require the sign off from the Minister.

Last week a Senate inquiry into bilateral air rights heard the department provided the paperwork for negotiations to commence with Qatar in January, but it never advanced beyond Ms King’s office.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka told the inquiry Ms King had indicated she was about to give the green light for negotiations to start when the pair met on January 20.

At the same meeting, Ms Hrdlicka said Ms King shared that then Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was not happy to hear negotiations were imminent, and wanted to meet with her.

After that meeting, the negotiation mandate was not returned to the department with public servants hearing nothing further from Ms King until they were informed on July 10 the Qatar request had been denied.

Qatar Airways’ officials confirmed no negotiations ever took place, nor were they provided with a reason for the Australian government’s refusal.

Mr Joyce has been out of the country since bringing forward his retirement from Qantas and is yet to give evidence to the inquiry.

It was clear Qantas remained strongly opposed to Qatar Airways being granted more flights, after warning the government a review of the decision would be highly abnormal.

In its submission to the Senate inquiry, Qantas said “airlines and other parties do not have ‘rights’ that can be properly appealed in this context”.

“Granting them would put Australia out of step with other jurisdictions in an environment

where reciprocity is critical,” the submission said.

“In analogous fields such as trade or taxation, there are no appeal provisions in respect of other government-to-government agreements.”

Qatar Airways’ officials told the inquiry the airline could be operating the additional services by Christmas, if Ms King’s decision was overturned.

Other evidence presented to the Senate committee suggested the doubling of Qatar Airways’ capacity into Australia could lower airfares to Europe by 7 to 10 per cent, and support hundreds of extra jobs.

A report on the inquiry was expected to be delivered on Monday October 9, but committee chair Bridget McKenzie remained hopeful of hearing from Mr Joyce and Ms King.

Senator McKenzie said while they were pleased with the results of the inquiry and five public hearings, there were “still questions to be answered”.

Originally published as Discussions to be held with Qatar over flight block, says department