Peter Dutton accuses Prime Minister of ‘sweetheart deal’ with Qantas boss Alan Joyce

Peter Dutton has accused the Prime Minister of striking a secret “sweetheart deal” with Qantas boss Alan Joyce amid Qatar Airways rejection.

Peter Dutton has accused the Prime Minister of striking a secret “sweetheart deal” with Qantas boss Alan Joyce.

Mr Dutton made the accusation this week following the government’s decision to block Qatar Airways from expanding its network in Australia.

“It’s inflationary and it’s unfair to a lot of Australians who might have worked hard … to travel overseas,” Mr Dutton said. “Under [this deal] they will pay thousands more for airfares.”

The Opposition Leader expressed his support for Qatar Airways after its application to add 21 weekly flights to the 28 it already operates was denied by the government last month.

“I want more capacity in the system, more inbound tourism,” Mr Dutton said.

“There will be a lot more questions for the government on the deal in the coming weeks.”

The government’s decision has been slammed as a move to protect Qantas from competition, with the relationship between Alan Joyce and Anthony Albanese also coming under fire this week.

Peter Dutton, Anthony Albanese and Alan Joyce. Picture: NCA Newswire

Mr Joyce, who was hauled in front of a Senate inquiry on Monday, was repeatedly accused of not directly answering questions surrounding his relationship with the Prime Minister.

Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne asked Mr Joyce if he had discussed Qatar’s proposal last October to increase its flights to Australia with Mr Albanese or Transport Minister Catherine King.

But Mr Joyce said he would never divulge a discussion he had with any prime minister.

“I’ve said any conversations I have with the Prime Minister or Minister, I never divulge,” he told the committee.

“I’ve kept that for all seven prime ministers either way and I have no intent on changing my approach to divulging conversations that take place.”

Qatar Airways wants to add another 21 weekly flights to the 28 it already operates, but the government rejected it.

During the inquiry, Mr Joyce, however, confirmed that Qantas had sent a letter to the federal government in October 2022 about the proposal from Qatar, claiming that allowing the Doha-based carrier 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.

Alan Joyce is retiring from Qantas after 15 years as CEO. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

“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.”

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has since labelled the move as “disappointing” and has urged the government to rethink its decision.

Ms Hrdlicka said if Qatar – a partner carrier of Virgin – were to be given the go-ahead, it could cut international airfares by as much as 40 per cent.

“The statistics say that 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,” she told ABC’s Radio National earlier this week.

Virgin CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said allowing its partner-carrier Qatar Airways to increase its flights into major capital cities would lower airfares. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“So if we get those seats back, airfares will be as low as they possibly could be.”

Virgin has written a letter to the Federal Transport Minister seeking a meeting to understand the reasons behind the decision and to try and find a path forward.

Ms Hrdlicka said Qatar was in the unique position in the context of a constrained global supply of widebody aircraft, to be able to quickly make available four additional services per day to Australia.

“Additional Qatar flights would have an immediate and tangible effect in reducing airfares between Australia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” she said.

“Qatar is in the unique position in the context of a constrained global supply of widebody aircraft, to be able to quickly make available four additional services per day to Australia.”

She said the move would “immediately” benefit the Australian tourism industry and cost-of-living relief”.

Meanwhile, former treasurer Peter Costello said he also could not fathom why the Middle Eastern carrier was blocked, The Australian reported.

Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Future Fund at a briefing, he said: “It is hard to fathom why the government would not allow more flights into Australia at a time when fares are so high and volumes still down on pre-Covid levels,” he said. “By not allowing further international flights into Australia you’ll have less competition, you’ll have higher fares, you’ll have higher inflation.

“The suggestion that the government somehow had a responsibility to protect (Qantas’) profit? I just can’t understand – the government is not there to protect anybody’s profit.”

Mr Costello demanded the government come clean on why it made the decision. “I think we need a much clearer explanation of those comments,” he said.

If the Qatar bilateral expansion is approved, up to four additional daily services – 21 a week –could be added into major Australian airports. It translates to about one million seats per year.

Qatar Airways is yet to comment on the decision.