Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka slams Qantas, Australian government for high airfare prices

Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka has urged the government to allow more Qatar Airways flights to land in Australia, saying it would lower airfares.

Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka has called on the government to allow more Qatar Airways flights to land in Australia, saying it would lower airfares and boost tourism.

Last month, the federal government shot down an application by the Middle Eastern carrier to add 21 extra flights per week into Australia, on top of the 28 currently landing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The government said it was not in the national interest to allow Qatar Airways to land so often, but their decision was slammed as a move to protect Qantas from competition.

The government has been accused of protecting Qantas when it refused to let Qatar Airways land more flights in Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

The relationship between Qantas and the government, and Anthony Albanese in particular, has come under the spotlight this week.

The airline’s boss, Alan Joyce, was hauled in front of a Senate inquiry on Monday, where he claimed allowing Qatar Airway to have extra flights would distort the air travel market.

“We said to the government that capacity was coming back … quite rapidly in all of these markets, and that granting a carrier doubling their traffic rights in the short term would cause distortion,” Mr Joyce said.

“A lot of capacity is being added to the market and it‘s going to be significant over the next year, and that will bring down airfares quite considerably.”

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was quizzed on his relationship with the government on Monday. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis.

Ms Hrdlicka, however, said Mr Joyce’s claim was “nonsense”.

“You need to add seats where the demand exists,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

“And the constraints are in these major capital cities.

“And that’s where the seats need to come and that’s what Qatar has applied for.

“It‘s also a bit of a nonsense to say it’s a market distortion when there’s such little capacity that’s recovered.”

Ms Hrdlicka said allowing Qatar Airways to increase its flights into major capital cities would lower airfares, which were “abnormally high”.

“Airfares are about 50 per cent higher today than they were pre-Covid,” she said.

“The statistics say two-thirds of the seats that were flying in and out of Australia pre-Covid are back and one-third of those seats are not yet back.

“And so if we get those seats back, airfares will be as low as they possibly could be. I guess that would be a reduction of at least a third, maybe 40 per cent reduction in airfares.”

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka (centre) said allowing Qatar to operate more flights would lower airfares. Picture: Supplied.

Since last year, Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways have had a “strategic partnership” spanning Australia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ms Hrdlicka said Qantas and Emirates dominated flights into Europe and the Middle East with around a 45 per cent share, while Virgin and its partners have a 23 per cent share.

She accused Qantas of interfering with the government’s decision in order to protect its market share.

“We’ve sought a number of meetings (with the government) and we haven’t heard back yet,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“I think there may have been late information coming in from Qantas to try and stop this and there wasn’t enough information to help balance an interested view.

“I would just encourage the government to step back and say, let‘s get all the facts on the table and understand what’s actually in the national interest.

“There’s over $500 million in economic interest at stake here for the tourism industry — that’s a lot of jobs.”

The government shot down an application by Qatar Airways to add 21 extra flights per week to Australia. Picture: David Geraghty.

Meanwhile, Flight Centre CEO Graham Turner said the decision could end up “blowing up on the government”.

“There’s no logic to it, and it is a bit of a worry because we have more demand than capacity,” Mr Turner told ABC Radio.

“So any extra capacity — that, certainly for our industry, is very important. It was clearly not in the national interest as far as I can see.

“You could argue that it could have been in Qantas’s interests, it certainly wasn’t in Virgin’s interest because they have a codeshare relationship with Qatar, so I just don’t think it was an argument that held any water.”

Alan Joyce refused to say whether Anthony Albanese’s son, Nathan Albanese (right) had access to the Qantas Chairman’s Club. Picture: AFP.

Qantas has come under heavy scrutiny this week after posting a pre-tax profit of $2.47 billion while travellers contend with soaring airfares, frequently delayed flights and $370 million in pandemic travel credits that haven’t been reimbursed by the airline.

On Monday, Mr Joyce was asked whether Qantas had lobbied against increased capacity for Qatar Airways but refused to answer.

“I’m not going to comment on any conversations that took place,” he said.

Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne also asked whether the Prime Minister’s 23-year-old son, Nathan Albanese, was given membership to the Qantas Chairman’s Club. Mr Joyce again declined to answer.

“I will be not be making any comment on that,” Mr Joyce added, saying there were security concerns related to releasing the club’s membership.

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